Chapter Three “I was twelve when he visited us. Mama immediately told everyone he was from Martigny, you know the tiny Principality in the French Alps, like Monocco but smaller. I tried to tell her the language of Martigny is a French dialect and whatever language he spoke it did not sound even remotely French, as a dialect would. But she insisted. Anyway I recognized him from a portrait Mama had sketched of him; he was the perfect image of her fictional prince. “Mama claimed she had met him in New York City while visiting the U.N. and was mystified by his apparent resemblance to her fictional character and had surmised she must have seen his photo somewhere, sometime in her past and had shaped the likeness of the Orphan Prince after this unconscious memory. It seemed a perfectly reasonable explanation, a very rational explanation. His appearance was striking. The family accepted Mama’s story, but I knew it was a lie.” Barb was silent, probably unable to digest the information, and Dani hurried on. The prince didn’t speak English, for one thing, nor did he speak French or any other European language, so from the start Dani was suspicious but she like him immediately. He had a way about him that invited her trust without question, though she was careful not to let on to him. Dani taught him English and in return he taught her his language. She wanted to learn his language very much because it was so unearthly, both ancient and new, with a suggestion of every language in it, unlike any she had ever heard to that point or since. She acquired a fairly extensive vocabulary, though the pronunciations were difficult. It took some effort to sort out the syntax, to understand its rhythm. “We got pretty close,” Dani said. “He spoke often of his home, how it was pristine and pollution free. He described the forests and the plant life -- like the njuidenay, a species of plant that blooms crystal flowers that chime in the wind. He spoke of mountain peaks, the only place where snow collects; and of white dolphins with purple, zebra-like stripes; and the great sentinel Canopy and the turbulent ocean. He described the black-domed cities that gathered frost nightly until the moonlight shone on them sparkling like diamonds. When he spoke about Haven I wanted to go there. Now you know I have never even picked up one of Mama’s books, so how would I know such things?” Dani paused to take a breath. The silence in Texas made her nervous. Finally Barb answered in a thoughtful voice. “So what you’re telling me is the Orphan Prince is the man your mother disappeared with the day your father was murdered?” “Is it so farfetched? Is it outside the realm of possibility that Haven is a real place and the Orphan Prince a real person?” “No, not so far-fetched.” A current of alarm went through her. “You’re not supposed to believe me.” Dani complained. “Talk me out of it.” “You don’t want me to talk you out of it, Dani, you want me to believe and I do.” “Why?” “There’s more mystery to this Universe than anyone can imagine and so little of it that we understand, so why not your mother writing about a human society that is yet to come? Why not teleportation, which, by the way, was an element in the books, though the travel was limited to the planet and the time ranges involved much shorter? But more than that, Dani, I trust you.” Encouraged, feeling that now she was committed she must finish, Dani went on. “After they were gone, the authorities wanted to find him because he was implicated in my father’s murder, but for the family finding Mama was much more personal. They immediately went to the French consulate in New York City for information, hoping to track them down but no one there knew anything about him. Mama had claimed he was a diplomat for Martigny who sat with the French delegation at the U.N. No one in Martigny ever heard of him either. Uncle Bobby – the police officer – pulled some strings and with money the family pulled together had DNA testing done on some hair they found in his comb. Instead of results they were paid a visit from a Federal Agency who had a warrant to go into Mama’s house. They took away all his stuff. No one knew why.” “Did you ever get the DNA results?” Barb prompted when Dani stopped talking abruptly. “No.” Dani lied. In fact, two years later a lab technician had tracked Uncle Bobby down and told him that the DNA from the hair was unlike any DNA she had ever seen, human with a trace of “unknown other”-- a hybrid. Her curiosity had got the better of her. She had hoped Uncle Bobby could tell her something about the person behind the DNA. To protect her family and the woman from the lab, to protect Barb, Dani told nothing about that. In the fledgling days of The Patriot Act, some things were better left unsaid over an open cell phone. Even saying what she had thus far was dangerous and could jeopardize her dream of someday working in the Secret Service or for the CIA. After the visit from the lab tech the grownups had discussed the situation and Dani had eavesdropped as they argued well into the night. No one would admit the obvious --- Mama’s boyfriend was not from Earth. Dani was the only one in the family willing to accept it, but she knew better than to speak of it. A few days after her predawn confession to Barb, Dani was directed to go to Assistant Coach Bede’s office on her way to the locker room to suit up for practice. The thirty something coach was dressed for practice, her white zippered jacket sporting the Middelbury Sports department logo. Her whistle was hung around her neck. Her dark red hair was pulled back in the usual single ponytail. She sat ramrod straight in her office chair her elbows lightly braced on the armrests. She wasted no time with polite conversation. “I’m sorry to tell you Dani that your performance on the court these days has remained well below your potential. Your focus is shot. You are consistently playing below your abilities.” “Am I benched?” “Benched?” She suddenly leaned forward her gray eyes dark and penetrating. “Dani, you used to be a leader out there. Your mood is demoralizing the whole team. That is bad enough, but you are slipping in academics and you know the school’s policy in that regard. You are not benched, you are out, off the team, at least until you get your personal life in order and show us that you can play ball without letting it affect your studies and the game.” Bede was not unsympathetic. She softened her tone a little. “I admit I’m surprised you would let your breakup throw you off your game so thoroughly. I never took you for the sort to fall apart emotionally; you always seemed like a rock to me.” “Does everyone know my business?” Dani cried out with frustration. Bede smiled. “Middlebury is a small campus. You can’t burp without President Liebowitz feeling the vibration in her office.” Under other circumstances Dani would have laughed at the joke, but so much more was at stake. Dani was fighting for her sanity and the dreams would not let up. She was angry that Maris’s crummy letter was having such a profound impact on her sleep, her social life and her studies. And she had gone and told Barb a secret she had guarded for seven years. Coach Bede tempered her voice a little. “Look, it’s not the end of your collegiate basketball career. I am confident by next season you will be on your feet again and there is the Spring Softball season. I am sure by then you’ll have put all this behind and you’ll be ready to play ball and can keep up with the academic end of things.” She pushed her chair back and stood up, signaling that the interview was over. “After you clean out your locker Dean Richards is expecting you.” Her meeting with the dean did not go any better. Dean Richards sat back in his black leather office chair. He was in his shirtsleeves, wearing a white blue pinstripe shirt with the sleeves rolled back a couple of times and a blue tie clipped to his shirt with a tiny Middlebury Panther tie tack. The hair on his arms was the same sandy color as his thinning hair. After several minutes of describing to Dani his concern for her slipping grades, repeating the review of her various instructors, he leaned forward clasping his hands on his desk. “We can give you a week or two to get your grades under control – it goes without saying your professors and instructors are willing to accept makeup work as long as you keep up with current assignments. We all agree that if you apply yourself you can get back on track before midterms and save this semester. However, if you continue this downward spiral, your overall performance will suffer and that will reflect badly on your total academic outcome. “That being said let me remind you that the college has resources for students struggling with personal problems. There is no shame in asking for help. I recommend that you take advantage of these resources.” Dani told herself her trouble was not the kind a therapist could help her solve. Though frightened by her audacity in making her confession to Barb it had proved cathartic. Barb had absorbed her incredible story and at least accepted Dani’s strong belief in it. “Your mother clearly appears to have had a direct line to Haven when she lived here,” Barb had said. “So maybe that works in reverse. Maybe instead of messages from your subconscious, the dreams are your mom’s attempt to send you a message. So pick up and take the call.” Dani had rejected Barb’s advice, no matter how sage or logical. The dream continued as before and she continued to fight it. In spite of a quick determined start at getting her academic legs under her again, she knew by the end of the following week that she was done. Her heart was not in her studies. Her focus was shot. She even lacked interest in her language studies. She went to the Dean’s office and admitted defeat. Dean Richards, eager to protect her academic reputation, suggested she withdraw and offered to put it in her record that a family emergency was the reason for her departure. The irony of that suggestion did not escape Dani’s notice as she signed all the required documents, and them paid a visit to the financial aid office and signed her exit papers. She was assured that the timing of the withdrawal included a partial refund on her tuition. That would keep Aunt Angie mollified at least. She had already expressed her virulent unhappiness that Dani had waited until the last minute to apprise her of the trouble she faced, trouble Angie considered preventable. She was not aware of Dani’s dreams; she only knew about her breakup and was understandably critical of Dani’s inability to cope. The next day Dani packed up, turned the keys to the efficiency over to the building manager with a sizeable check to cover the cost of any damages and loaded everything in her GEO Storm. With her dearest friends seeing her off – Maris was not among them, she drove out of Middlebury, picked up Historic Route 7A and drove south. In Rutland she turned left onto Route 4 and traveled East, inspired all at once to take a small detour, just a wee detour to Logan Airport in Boston. She traveled I-91south through Brattleboro into Massachusetts. She was halfway between Springfield and Worchester on I-90 headed for Boston, when she pulled into a rest area and called Angie to inform her she was going to visit Martigny. “Where are you?” The edge in her aunt’s voice was the culmination of fear, anger and impatience. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but quitting college and running off to Europe is not part of the plan. I expect you to come home with an explanation for this debacle.” Failure is not an option, Auntie’s tone declared. “You’re upset, I know, but I have to go to Martigny. Now. I have to see it now.” Now or never, she added to herself, thinking that this would be her last chance and she had no idea why she thought that. She had her whole life ahead of her and plenty of time to visit Martigny. “Upset does not come even close to what I’m feeling right now.” Angie’s voice sounded ragged and was laced with fear.” I want you home now. I cannot believe you would keep me in the dark about a problem so serious you had to withdraw from college. Taking a vacation to Martigny would be unwise. All I have to do is make one phone call and stop payment on your credit card. Do not force me to be the bad guy.” “I know I’ve let you down. I’m sorry. I can’t explain why I have to do this. Please, Aunt Angie, it’s important to me.” “What do you expect to find there?” The warning in her aunt’s voice declared her worry that Dani was going off the deep end and traipsing off to Europe in some pointless search for Mama. She did not dare tell Angie that she was not chasing a dream, but hoping to outrun a nightmare. “Castles, mountains, blue skies. I want to hear that French dialect I’ve waited to hear since the sixth grade.” Her study of Martigny had been assigned to her in the sixth grade for extra credit and to teach Dani some context for the French she already spoke like a native. “I talked to Maris and she told me the details of your break up, finally. I noticed that things had cooled considerably between you two that last weekend in August, so I’m not surprised, but I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me, that I had to hear it from Maris. She sounded quite upset and worried that you had withdrawn from school.” The gall of Maris to imply she cared. The bitch had practically ordered Dani to leave Middlebury. Dani ignored the reference to her ex. “Haven’t you ever just wanted to leave everything behind and get away for a while?” “Now is not the time, Danielle. You have a load of explaining to do and I will not wait while you run off on some sightseeing trip in Europe.” “I’ll be back in a week or two. We can talk then and I’ll try to explain what happened.” Dani made the promise with no intention of keeping it. She knew Angie would not welcome the news that Dani was being tormented by dreams of Mama. Of all the family she was the one who believed the same as Dani, but she could never admit it. She was too pragmatic and she bitterly resented Mama for deserting Dani and the rest of the family. She argued with Aunt Angie for another half hour and finally convinced her to allow Dani to make the trip after she agreed to call everyday to keep her aunt informed of where she was or expected to be at all times. For two days Dani bummed rides from Paris to the French Alps. She slept in hostels and met other college-age wanderers, joined them in outdoor cafés where they sipped wine ate bread and cheese and swapped stories in whatever language was native to each new acquaintance. For a week Dani wandered Martigny, visited with the locals and tried out the lovely dialect. As promised, she texted Angie every day. Hello, I’m doing well. Martigny is lovely and the language sweet. Luv, Dani. The only black mark on the trip was the repeating dream. She completed her visit at Martigny’s capitol, Angenide (Angel’s Nest), found a suite overlooking the Royal Palace, Flèches Blanches des montagnes. (White Spires of the mountains) situated amid spiky evergreens and the backdrop of snowcapped peaks and a clear blue sky. She took dinner at a nearby café and spoke briefly with the maître. In the morning she paid a driver to take her back to Paris, an exorbitant splurge. It occurred to her as the taxi plummeted headlong down the mountain that she could as easily order the driver to turn east where the highway forked about halfway down and take a side trip into Switzerland and after that travel north into Germany, then Poland, Denmark and Norway … she had all of Europe to be explored. The many languages she could learn and perfect made a tantalizing temptation. At this point language studies was truly the one thing in her life that gave her unequivocal joy, the one true vocation she was born to fulfill.. Yes, she needed to take a right hand turn into a future where learning and exploring language would save her from a lifetime of living down her mother’s mistakes. We all wonder if you are really gay, Dani. Maris had said. No you’re not a lesbian, you just want your mother back. Dani almost howled aloud. She was on the verge of telling the driver to travel east but could not do it. She had obligations. Worst of all she had promised Aunt Angie to be home in two weeks and her two weeks were nearly up. She stayed one night in Paris to test the club life, where she allowed a sweet Parisian named Nancy to picked her up just to prove Maris wrong . The girl’s skill in bed was unparalleled but all the same, Dani woke in the morning feeling tarnished and bereft. To compensate, she spent a half hour after breakfast working the girl into a state on the glass and wrought iron table beside open floor to ceiling windows with billowing sheer curtains. Oh mon! Dani! Vous ne pouvez pas partir. Nous nous sommes réunis; séjour avec moi à Paris. Stay. What a delicious impossible invitation, but boy, she was tempted to accept. Later, following a lingering goodbye embrace and kiss, Dani departed for Charles de Gaul airport. On the transatlantic flight back to the states, Dani had the Mommy dream. She woke up shaking and soaked with sweat somewhere over the Atlantic with the rising sun forcing the jet to chase its own shadow across the clouds. On the verge of an emotional breakdown, Dani finally took Barb’s advice and let the dream in.

Chapter Three “I was twelve when he visited us. Mama immediately told everyone he was from Martigny, you know the tiny Principality in the French Alps, like Monocco but smaller. I tried to tell her the language of Martigny is a French dialect and whatever language he spoke it did not sound even remotely French, as a dialect would. But she insisted. Anyway I recognized him from a portrait Mama had sketched of him; he was the perfect image of her fictional prince. “Mama claimed she had met him in New York City while visiting the U.N. and was mystified by his apparent resemblance to her fictional character and had surmised she must have seen his photo somewhere, sometime in her past and had shaped the likeness of the Orphan Prince after this unconscious memory. It seemed a perfectly reasonable explanation, a very rational explanation. His appearance was striking. The family accepted Mama’s story, but I knew it was a lie.” Barb was silent, probably unable to digest the information, and Dani hurried on. The prince didn’t speak English, for one thing, nor did he speak French or any other European language, so from the start Dani was suspicious but she like him immediately. He had a way about him that invited her trust without question, though she was careful not to let on to him. Dani taught him English and in return he taught her his language. She wanted to learn his language very much because it was so unearthly, both ancient and new, with a suggestion of every language in it, unlike any she had ever heard to that point or since. She acquired a fairly extensive vocabulary, though the pronunciations were difficult. It took some effort to sort out the syntax, to understand its rhythm. “We got pretty close,” Dani said. “He spoke often of his home, how it was pristine and pollution free. He described the forests and the plant life -- like the njuidenay, a species of plant that blooms crystal flowers that chime in the wind. He spoke of mountain peaks, the only place where snow collects; and of white dolphins with purple, zebra-like stripes; and the great sentinel Canopy and the turbulent ocean. He described the black-domed cities that gathered frost nightly until the moonlight shone on them sparkling like diamonds. When he spoke about Haven I wanted to go there. Now you know I have never even picked up one of Mama’s books, so how would I know such things?” Dani paused to take a breath. The silence in Texas made her nervous. Finally Barb answered in a thoughtful voice. “So what you’re telling me is the Orphan Prince is the man your mother disappeared with the day your father was murdered?” “Is it so farfetched? Is it outside the realm of possibility that Haven is a real place and the Orphan Prince a real person?” “No, not so far-fetched.” A current of alarm went through her. “You’re not supposed to believe me.” Dani complained. “Talk me out of it.” “You don’t want me to talk you out of it, Dani, you want me to believe and I do.” “Why?” “There’s more mystery to this Universe than anyone can imagine and so little of it that we understand, so why not your mother writing about a human society that is yet to come? Why not teleportation, which, by the way, was an element in the books, though the travel was limited to the planet and the time ranges involved much shorter? But more than that, Dani, I trust you.” Encouraged, feeling that now she was committed she must finish, Dani went on. “After they were gone, the authorities wanted to find him because he was implicated in my father’s murder, but for the family finding Mama was much more personal. They immediately went to the French consulate in New York City for information, hoping to track them down but no one there knew anything about him. Mama had claimed he was a diplomat for Martigny who sat with the French delegation at the U.N. No one in Martigny ever heard of him either. Uncle Bobby – the police officer – pulled some strings and with money the family pulled together had DNA testing done on some hair they found in his comb. Instead of results they were paid a visit from a Federal Agency who had a warrant to go into Mama’s house. They took away all his stuff. No one knew why.” “Did you ever get the DNA results?” Barb prompted when Dani stopped talking abruptly. “No.” Dani lied. In fact, two years later a lab technician had tracked Uncle Bobby down and told him that the DNA from the hair was unlike any DNA she had ever seen, human with a trace of “unknown other”-- a hybrid. Her curiosity had got the better of her. She had hoped Uncle Bobby could tell her something about the person behind the DNA. To protect her family and the woman from the lab, to protect Barb, Dani told nothing about that. In the fledgling days of The Patriot Act, some things were better left unsaid over an open cell phone. Even saying what she had thus far was dangerous and could jeopardize her dream of someday working in the Secret Service or for the CIA. After the visit from the lab tech the grownups had discussed the situation and Dani had eavesdropped as they argued well into the night. No one would admit the obvious --- Mama’s boyfriend was not from Earth. Dani was the only one in the family willing to accept it, but she knew better than to speak of it. A few days after her predawn confession to Barb, Dani was directed to go to Assistant Coach Bede’s office on her way to the locker room to suit up for practice. The thirty something coach was dressed for practice, her white zippered jacket sporting the Middelbury Sports department logo. Her whistle was hung around her neck. Her dark red hair was pulled back in the usual single ponytail. She sat ramrod straight in her office chair her elbows lightly braced on the armrests. She wasted no time with polite conversation. “I’m sorry to tell you Dani that your performance on the court these days has remained well below your potential. Your focus is shot. You are consistently playing below your abilities.” “Am I benched?” “Benched?” She suddenly leaned forward her gray eyes dark and penetrating. “Dani, you used to be a leader out there. Your mood is demoralizing the whole team. That is bad enough, but you are slipping in academics and you know the school’s policy in that regard. You are not benched, you are out, off the team, at least until you get your personal life in order and show us that you can play ball without letting it affect your studies and the game.” Bede was not unsympathetic. She softened her tone a little. “I admit I’m surprised you would let your breakup throw you off your game so thoroughly. I never took you for the sort to fall apart emotionally; you always seemed like a rock to me.” “Does everyone know my business?” Dani cried out with frustration. Bede smiled. “Middlebury is a small campus. You can’t burp without President Liebowitz feeling the vibration in her office.” Under other circumstances Dani would have laughed at the joke, but so much more was at stake. Dani was fighting for her sanity and the dreams would not let up. She was angry that Maris’s crummy letter was having such a profound impact on her sleep, her social life and her studies. And she had gone and told Barb a secret she had guarded for seven years. Coach Bede tempered her voice a little. “Look, it’s not the end of your collegiate basketball career. I am confident by next season you will be on your feet again and there is the Spring Softball season. I am sure by then you’ll have put all this behind and you’ll be ready to play ball and can keep up with the academic end of things.” She pushed her chair back and stood up, signaling that the interview was over. “After you clean out your locker Dean Richards is expecting you.” Her meeting with the dean did not go any better. Dean Richards sat back in his black leather office chair. He was in his shirtsleeves, wearing a white blue pinstripe shirt with the sleeves rolled back a couple of times and a blue tie clipped to his shirt with a tiny Middlebury Panther tie tack. The hair on his arms was the same sandy color as his thinning hair. After several minutes of describing to Dani his concern for her slipping grades, repeating the review of her various instructors, he leaned forward clasping his hands on his desk. “We can give you a week or two to get your grades under control – it goes without saying your professors and instructors are willing to accept makeup work as long as you keep up with current assignments. We all agree that if you apply yourself you can get back on track before midterms and save this semester. However, if you continue this downward spiral, your overall performance will suffer and that will reflect badly on your total academic outcome. “That being said let me remind you that the college has resources for students struggling with personal problems. There is no shame in asking for help. I recommend that you take advantage of these resources.” Dani told herself her trouble was not the kind a therapist could help her solve. Though frightened by her audacity in making her confession to Barb it had proved cathartic. Barb had absorbed her incredible story and at least accepted Dani’s strong belief in it. “Your mother clearly appears to have had a direct line to Haven when she lived here,” Barb had said. “So maybe that works in reverse. Maybe instead of messages from your subconscious, the dreams are your mom’s attempt to send you a message. So pick up and take the call.” Dani had rejected Barb’s advice, no matter how sage or logical. The dream continued as before and she continued to fight it. In spite of a quick determined start at getting her academic legs under her again, she knew by the end of the following week that she was done. Her heart was not in her studies. Her focus was shot. She even lacked interest in her language studies. She went to the Dean’s office and admitted defeat. Dean Richards, eager to protect her academic reputation, suggested she withdraw and offered to put it in her record that a family emergency was the reason for her departure. The irony of that suggestion did not escape Dani’s notice as she signed all the required documents, and them paid a visit to the financial aid office and signed her exit papers. She was assured that the timing of the withdrawal included a partial refund on her tuition. That would keep Aunt Angie mollified at least. She had already expressed her virulent unhappiness that Dani had waited until the last minute to apprise her of the trouble she faced, trouble Angie considered preventable. She was not aware of Dani’s dreams; she only knew about her breakup and was understandably critical of Dani’s inability to cope. The next day Dani packed up, turned the keys to the efficiency over to the building manager with a sizeable check to cover the cost of any damages and loaded everything in her GEO Storm. With her dearest friends seeing her off – Maris was not among them, she drove out of Middlebury, picked up Historic Route 7A and drove south. In Rutland she turned left onto Route 4 and traveled East, inspired all at once to take a small detour, just a wee detour to Logan Airport in Boston. She traveled I-91south through Brattleboro into Massachusetts. She was halfway between Springfield and Worchester on I-90 headed for Boston, when she pulled into a rest area and called Angie to inform her she was going to visit Martigny. “Where are you?” The edge in her aunt’s voice was the culmination of fear, anger and impatience. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but quitting college and running off to Europe is not part of the plan. I expect you to come home with an explanation for this debacle.” Failure is not an option, Auntie’s tone declared. “You’re upset, I know, but I have to go to Martigny. Now. I have to see it now.” Now or never, she added to herself, thinking that this would be her last chance and she had no idea why she thought that. She had her whole life ahead of her and plenty of time to visit Martigny. “Upset does not come even close to what I’m feeling right now.” Angie’s voice sounded ragged and was laced with fear.” I want you home now. I cannot believe you would keep me in the dark about a problem so serious you had to withdraw from college. Taking a vacation to Martigny would be unwise. All I have to do is make one phone call and stop payment on your credit card. Do not force me to be the bad guy.” “I know I’ve let you down. I’m sorry. I can’t explain why I have to do this. Please, Aunt Angie, it’s important to me.” “What do you expect to find there?” The warning in her aunt’s voice declared her worry that Dani was going off the deep end and traipsing off to Europe in some pointless search for Mama. She did not dare tell Angie that she was not chasing a dream, but hoping to outrun a nightmare. “Castles, mountains, blue skies. I want to hear that French dialect I’ve waited to hear since the sixth grade.” Her study of Martigny had been assigned to her in the sixth grade for extra credit and to teach Dani some context for the French she already spoke like a native. “I talked to Maris and she told me the details of your break up, finally. I noticed that things had cooled considerably between you two that last weekend in August, so I’m not surprised, but I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me, that I had to hear it from Maris. She sounded quite upset and worried that you had withdrawn from school.” The gall of Maris to imply she cared. The bitch had practically ordered Dani to leave Middlebury. Dani ignored the reference to her ex. “Haven’t you ever just wanted to leave everything behind and get away for a while?” “Now is not the time, Danielle. You have a load of explaining to do and I will not wait while you run off on some sightseeing trip in Europe.” “I’ll be back in a week or two. We can talk then and I’ll try to explain what happened.” Dani made the promise with no intention of keeping it. She knew Angie would not welcome the news that Dani was being tormented by dreams of Mama. Of all the family she was the one who believed the same as Dani, but she could never admit it. She was too pragmatic and she bitterly resented Mama for deserting Dani and the rest of the family. She argued with Aunt Angie for another half hour and finally convinced her to allow Dani to make the trip after she agreed to call everyday to keep her aunt informed of where she was or expected to be at all times. For two days Dani bummed rides from Paris to the French Alps. She slept in hostels and met other college-age wanderers, joined them in outdoor cafés where they sipped wine ate bread and cheese and swapped stories in whatever language was native to each new acquaintance. For a week Dani wandered Martigny, visited with the locals and tried out the lovely dialect. As promised, she texted Angie every day. Hello, I’m doing well. Martigny is lovely and the language sweet. Luv, Dani. The only black mark on the trip was the repeating dream. She completed her visit at Martigny’s capitol, Angenide (Angel’s Nest), found a suite overlooking the Royal Palace, Flèches Blanches des montagnes. (White Spires of the mountains) situated amid spiky evergreens and the backdrop of snowcapped peaks and a clear blue sky. She took dinner at a nearby café and spoke briefly with the maître. In the morning she paid a driver to take her back to Paris, an exorbitant splurge. It occurred to her as the taxi plummeted headlong down the mountain that she could as easily order the driver to turn east where the highway forked about halfway down and take a side trip into Switzerland and after that travel north into Germany, then Poland, Denmark and Norway … she had all of Europe to be explored. The many languages she could learn and perfect made a tantalizing temptation. At this point language studies was truly the one thing in her life that gave her unequivocal joy, the one true vocation she was born to fulfill.. Yes, she needed to take a right hand turn into a future where learning and exploring language would save her from a lifetime of living down her mother’s mistakes. We all wonder if you are really gay, Dani. Maris had said. No you’re not a lesbian, you just want your mother back. Dani almost howled aloud. She was on the verge of telling the driver to travel east but could not do it. She had obligations. Worst of all she had promised Aunt Angie to be home in two weeks and her two weeks were nearly up. She stayed one night in Paris to test the club life, where she allowed a sweet Parisian named Nancy to picked her up just to prove Maris wrong . The girl’s skill in bed was unparalleled but all the same, Dani woke in the morning feeling tarnished and bereft. To compensate, she spent a half hour after breakfast working the girl into a state on the glass and wrought iron table beside open floor to ceiling windows with billowing sheer curtains. Oh mon! Dani! Vous ne pouvez pas partir. Nous nous sommes réunis; séjour avec moi à Paris. Stay. What a delicious impossible invitation, but boy, she was tempted to accept. Later, following a lingering goodbye embrace and kiss, Dani departed for Charles de Gaul airport. On the transatlantic flight back to the states, Dani had the Mommy dream. She woke up shaking and soaked with sweat somewhere over the Atlantic with the rising sun forcing the jet to chase its own shadow across the clouds. On the verge of an emotional breakdown, Dani finally took Barb’s advice and let the dream in.

Next Chapter: Chapter 17

Next Chapter: Chapter 17

Interlude III An In Between had been selected.The Keeper’s effort to find an alternative link to the girl had included first and foremost the plentiful Sentinels, and then two rare elementals and finally the intruder who had taken possession of the Talisman. Predictably, the King’s daughter was naturally drawn to the one in possession of the Talisman. In those moments when she was drawn to an elemental, the Keeper had felt her visceral need to reconnect directly through the Talisman, a desire buffered by an equal repugnance, but when in proximity to the intruder her resistance diminished considerably. Instinctively she trusted the usurper, more than likely because she sensed the presence of the Talisman on him.It remained to be seen whether or not this usurper was worthy to be called In Between.Bhria preferred to deal with the girl without an In Between, but it was abundantly clear that this bond was not going to be so simple.The moment the human came in direct contact with the Talisman, the Keeper instantly knew every detail of the usurper’s life so far, from beginning to end, the good and the bad, the twisted rebellion, the agonizing loss of faith and its long painful restoration, still in progress. The man had a history of resistance to the Thrithings’ bond and his resistance had proved resilient.Even now, Bhria came up against that profane wall of stubbornness. Inside the dense veil the weak signature of the Brother assigned to this malcontent stretched to find a way out but was stretched so thin as to be dispersed to eternity, if such a thing were possible. Bhria’s mind moved into the outer edges of the veil, felt the Brother shrink back and after a momentary lull surge forward. Their minds met. The contact gave the weakened Brother hope, a spurt of strength, a resurgence of Spirit. Even so it soon became clear the connection was not enough to break the Brother free. It required an Assembly.With a promise to send word to the Brother’s Bhria turned again to the task at hand. How much control would the human wield over this new connection? The strong resistance he displayed toward his own Keeper made Bhria wonder what sort of In Between he would make. What resistance would he bring to the task of In Between, resistance that might impact the King’s daughter for ill and not for good?Now that the human was in direct physical contact with the girl’s Talisman, and the connection was new, he had not had time to put up a veil so before he could even think about trying, Bhria gave him the full measure of pain he deserved, charging his body and his mind with white static. The human male had deliberately dispossessed the King’s daughter of her talisman. Worse still he had managed to disengage from and isolate his own Keeper. It did not matter why. For the purpose at hand Bhria must prove the man worthy of the care of the King’s daughter. In time the Brotherhood would determine what damage had been brought to bear on their Brother. Would the damage to the bond be reversible? Or was it too late? Too late for their Brother and too late to redeem the man, let alone, protect the King’s daughter.Putting these concerns aside, Bhria focused on the singular tiny point of the usurper’s physical existence in order to see how he comported himself in the human realm, among his own kind in the context of his environment, an exercise of will Bhria did not relish and seldom attempted, but to learn what the usurper truly intended toward the King’s daughter, whether good or ill, a sift through the silt of human offal was necessary to get an exact picture, an unpleasant exigency to be sure.Bhria pushed through the In Between’s weakened resistance; the Talisman expedited the effort.His name was Theo. His ankles were shackled to chains attached to iron pikes driven into the bedrock inside a tiny cloth dwelling – why humanity insisted on shielding themselves beneath restrictive enclosures with the sheltering Sentinels above was beyond him. Theo had already received the first blows of human judgment and his injuries were being attended by two men.“I do not believe the break is so severe that his breathing will be permanently impaired if we let it heal crooked. “ The one said to his companion after a prolonged examination that involved poking and prodding Theo’s nose, now swollen twice its normal size.The other medic replied in a voice full of sarcasm. “It would be a wasted treatment anyway for a man who will be dead this time next week.”Their voices echoed dimly through the haze of the psychic pain Bhria’s static caused, but their meaning was not lost on Bhria or Theo. A female aid ducked under the flap of the tent held out of the way by one of two body guards posted outside the prison tent. She carried a bowl and bandages hung over her arm.“That gash under his eye is going to have to be sewed up though.” The second medic continued. “What fun would it be if he bled out before we have a chance to crucify him?”“You wish, brother.”They stood up together and the first medic addressed the female aid.“Pack the nose.”“You are not going to set it?”“Nope,” the assistant medic said.“No need to finesse when you stitch him up.” The medic instructed the young woman.“No sense using pain killers either.” The other said in a jeering voice.“Close it up enough to stop the bleeding. If he survives his punishment he deserves to carry his guilt on his face for the rest of his life.”“An eye for an eye.” The other cackled.“Very well.” She said with no hint of censure.“As soon as you finish sewing him up apply plenty of cold packs with folly leaf. The least we can do is keep the swelling down. We want him able to look his accusers in the face the day his trial begins.”“Get out of here,” The aide laughed while she watched them go. When she faced Theo her grey eyes were dispassionate and her smile faded as she went to work. He watched her through the slits of his eyes, using her to distract himself from the continued siren shout of the Keeper. In another life in another time Theo would have had her in his tent and in the throes of passion in a flash. In another place, in another time and under better circumstances she would have come looking for him.The warmth from Danielle’s Thrithingstone flared a lance of heat out across his chest intensifying his distress as if his thoughts were a betrayal of her and not of his own vow of abstinence or his promise to Anthony. The pain was excruciating. It made it hard to breath as if the wind had been knocked out his lungs permanently.The aide packed his nose with just enough roughness that the pain caused his eyes to tear and she nearly drowned him flushing the blood from his wound by pouring water from a pitcher directly onto the cut. She sewed indiscriminate stitches across his cheek without the benefit of any pain deadening agent. So far she had avoided looking him in the eye, but for one brief glance her grey eyes rested on his swollen lids.She must have caught a glimpse of the tenor of his thoughts because her bland expression brightened, then her cheeks flamed and she frowned.“Freth!” She hissed. Her breathing became agitated while she punctured healthy flesh a quarter inch below the wound and then another quarter inch above it and gave the needle a sharp tug, pulling the stitch too tight. "I am afraid your little Princess will be no help to you now."The young woman continued sewing and whispered in a tight voice that reeked of resentment. “You may think she will order us around and use her connections to the King to get by our laws and the Matriarch to give you what you want, but you are mistaken.”She paused before making a last knot. Her color was high. Theo recognized that look very well, the look of a creature trapped in an alluring snare that promised terrible consequences. He did not in the least feel for her or pity her, or entertain even a second of giving her what she wanted. She had spoken ill of Danielle. It satisfied him that her desire disgusted her. It disgusted him more. It made no difference to him that she was helpless to resist him. The foolish Lowlandians should have thought twice before sending a woman to treat him and worse, leaving her alone with him.Theo did not have to pretend to be bored. “Do you think you could finish that last stitch and get the hell out of here?”The color in her cheeks went from high to bright red. Her whole face was infused with dark color all the way down her neck. Shame was good. He wanted to shame her for expressing even a modicum of ill will toward Danielle.Her eyes flashed anger and humiliation. She leaned very close so that her breath puffed hard against his jaw. “How many times did you fuck her before she agreed to make you her consort?”Theo’s hand was wrapped around her throat before he even thought about doing it. He pulled the aide into his lap until they were nose to nose. Her needle flew out of her hand.“Say one more word against her and I’ll kill you right here.” He pinched.She gurgled in her throat; tried to pry his hand away. He tightened his hold. Let her use her needle to hurt and humiliate him, he deserved punishment but Danielle had done nothing but prove what a good loyal heart she had and if they turned their vile behavior against Danielle he’d see them suffer for it. He pressed his thumb to her larynx.Interesting.Two human males rushed in and struggled to dispossess Theo of the female but they could not get him to release her until one of them pressed his thumb against Theo’s broken nose.The pain was so bad the other pain, the subliminal static of the Keeper faded to a dull hum. Raw agony seared all the way to the back of his skull only to ricochet into his eyes and cheekbones. His body convulsed violently. The aide was thrown off and she sprawled landing on the bowl of bloody water, spilling it and bandages on the rocks. Theo howled with pain, rage and frustration. The men struggled to pull his arms to his back. Theo fought them.The Keeper turned his attention from the sordid display and focused his will upon the Talisman until it flared white hot and he pushed sending the elemental energy to Theo’s heart and from there to every inch of his body a lightning bolt of nuclear fission in miniature. Theo’s voice silenced abruptly and his body stiffened and he sucked in a huge lungful of air through his open mouth.For a nanosecond the Keeper was one with Theo. He tasted air sweet and cool, a taste full of the essence of her, of Danielle on the day the sky ripped open and she fell nearly on top of him, when she still carried on her the scent of her world, cool air, composting vegetation, and most tellingly, the sweetest pungent earthiness of her soul.It was all the proof Bhria needed.“You will do.” The Keeper withdrew back to the fullness of his own being taking Theo’s memory with him and taking back the punishing static. Her In Between had suffered enough.82,8],[��Wv��� Next Chapter: Chapter 17

to a dull hum. Raw agony seared all the way to the back of his skull only to ricochet into his eyes and cheekbones. His body convulsed violently. The aide was thrown off and she sprawled landing on the bowl of bloody water, spilling it and bandages on the rocks. Theo howled with pain, rage and frustration. The men struggled to pull his arms to his back. Theo fought them.The Keeper turned his attention from the sordid display and focused his will upon the Talisman until it flared white hot and he pushed sending the elemental energy to Theo’s heart and from there to every inch of his body a lightning bolt of nuclear fission in miniature. Theo’s voice silenced abruptly and his body stiffened and he sucked in a huge lungful of air through his open mouth.For a nanosecond the Keeper was one with Theo. He tasted air sweet and cool, a taste full of the essence of her, of Danielle on the day the sky ripped open and she fell nearly on top of him, when she still carried on her the scent of her world, cool air, composting vegetation, and most tellingly, the sweetest pungent earthiness of her soul.It was all the proof Bhria needed.“You will do.” The Keeper withdrew back to the fullness of his own being taking Theo’s memory with him and taking back the punishing static. Her In Between had suffered enough.82,8],[��Wv��� Next Chapter: Chapter 17 new Inkshares.BrowseBar(); Leaving

d one or two for Dani and showed her the difference between the tail and w

foot of a lofty Fhugari. Brynn, using a rope to scale the tall trunk by way of its lowest branch, quickly hoisted his body over thick lower branches until he disappeared from view. Januise handed Dani a collapsible basket and told her to work her way around the base of the giant and look for feathers in the vegetation. She found one or two for Dani and showed her the difference between the tail and wing feathers and instructed her to sort them as she collected then. Dani was to look for the green and gold striped feathers of the Gillihawk while Januise concentrated on the pink stippled black feathers of the Barimule two large fowl that nested in the Fhugarim and shed their winter feathers in New Summer. Dani found a number of feathers trapped in the bushes and brambles or cradled in the crook of thin branches.They worked in companionable silence for a while. Dani worked the base of the Fughari counterclockwise in concentric circles drawing ever closer to the trunk while Januise did the same working clockwise. Occasionally their paths crossed. On the first such crossing, Januise took a few moments to check Dani’s work, plucking out the deficient feathers – pointing out their faults – and commenting on the virtues of those she left alone.Dani said nothing. She worried that her energy would suddenly slip. The hard digging of the tubers had kept her distracted, but the physical effort had been demanding and she could feel the weariness in her body, a weariness that frustrated because she was used to being strong she was used to boundless energy. She had tolerated Theo carrying her because she had no choice. But any work Theo gave her to do had never been too physically demanding. The last thing she wanted was to drop into an exhausted stupor, here among Maddie’s people, to be seen as weak. She needed to be strong because Theo depended on her. The work of gathering feathers was not taxing, so she worked very slowly. She wandered the area surrounding the giant, drawn ever closer to its trunk while her thoughts shifted away from the task at hand, away from Theo’s plight, away from her unbegun search for Mama away from the fact that Maddie was the Orphan King’s daughter, until she stopped walking and stopped looking for feathers altogether. Dani thought for one strange moment that the Fughari had whispered her name.She took a couple of involuntary steps, her hand extended, reaching to the Fughari for an explanation and stumbled over one gnarled root and fell to her knees. Several of her gathered feathers fell to the ground. She left them.The stately Fhugarim in the Hill Country grew more widely spaced here than she remembered the ones in the forest on Theo’s mountain to the northwest, but not as widely spaced as those that occupied the open plains. Looking up she could see a bit of open sky in between.She stared up into this one’s distant branches and pressed her hands flat against the trunk. She could feel its life force, a fizzy current that tickled her palms and raced up her arms and into her body. Again she believed the thing whispered her name. But that was impossible. It was an inanimate object, not a living thing at all. There was no life force, The tingling had to be related to something else. What, she did not know.The rough bark-like surface was cool to the touch and looked more like petrified wood than anything organic. Dani pressed her body to it, spreading her arms out in what might look like an attempt at a hug but it would require maybe a half dozen Dani’s stretched fingertip to fingertip to reach around the full girth of the structure; may be more. The fizzy current faded and became a distant timpanist’s rumble. The thrum invaded her body instead. She turned around and slid down and sat on the ground, drawing her knees up. She did not want to collect feathers.Something in the Fughari pulled at her brain. It almost felt like an itch, but how do you scratch a mental itch? The feeling was similar to her compulsion to hold Theo’s amethyst box in her hand and stronger than the desire to pick up the diamond she had found in the river shallows and then to keep the gem in the grip of her hand. Low voices and quiet footsteps dragged her attention away from her reverie. A group of young ones carrying burlap sacks that were worn over one shoulder and bumped on the opposite hip appeared out of the thick bush and angled off in the direction of camp. The bags looked heavy. Sillie was in their midst. Their light laughter and conversation faded out of hearing while Dani wondered what work had they been doing?How could anyone take seriously a girl named Sillie? "Sillie is a pet name," Januise’s voice came from her left. Had she spoken aloud? "Sillie is short for Silliandra. Why have you stopped working?"Dani pushed away from the Fughari."I am done."Januise did not try to hold her back. Dani returned to camp following somewhat the same direction the children had used, a hollow anxiety taking shape as she walked. Occasionally the sound of their laughter drifted lazily on the warm wind.When she walked into camp she delivered her slim harvest of feathers to an agitated red haired man under the tent then strode out the far end facing the camp where she came on another debacle like those she had witnessed the day before. It was as she suspected. Three were on Theo at once, the two guards (not the same two who kept watch yesterday) and the bitterly angry pugilist, Georg. The sight of the three of them ganging up on Theo made her instantly forget her promise to him. Theo was under attack and she had to defend him. Without proper training in battle and the use of weapons Dani could only fall back on her talent for the pitch. Back home she was famous for her hard overhand fast ball, a talent mostly wasted because she was limited to playing girls softball and had to use the underarm windup. However, the coach of the boys team frequently invited her to pitch for the JV team during practice because she was the best picher in the shchool. When no one was looking she had selected choice stones whenever possible and secreted them into the pouch she had made from the Quibshift leather and now wore over her shoulder. Just in case. Now she was very glad she had prepared for just this possibility.Dani made no sound as she left the shelter of the tent and crossed the clearing with a rock already in hand. She let it fly reaching for a second missile before the first pitch hit its mark; it sliced into the cheek of the female guard. Blood flew. The woman leapt back in surprise and howled in pain. As soon as the second pitch was made Dani had a third stone in her hand. The male guard was staring in disbelief at his comrade when the second rock struck him high on the forehead and knocked him back two steps. The third rock, the sharpest Dani could find sliced into Georg’s ear, taking a sizable chunk with it -- and that was no lucky accident either. With each successive pitch she had closed the distance so that when she lobbed her fourth and final missile it slammed into Georg’s nose even before he had a chance to do more than holler about the first strike. His bellow was cut off in midstream to be replaced with a pathetic yelp. He pressed both hands to his face and doubled over.Their sluggish reaction to her attack implied that after yesterday’s verbal altercations they had decided Dani was all talk, a blunder in judgment on their part she was more than happy to rectify. Dani turned her wrath on the crowd that had gathered to watch the abuse and to jeer Theo, pelting them viciously alternating right and left handed pitches scattering them into a hasty retreat back to the tent and their duties. A few stragglers clamped hands on Georg who turned on her in a rage, blood flowing from his wounded ear and leaking between his fingers from his nose, and wisely pulled him out of the line of fire. He did not go easily. Even the two guards backed off to a safe distanceDani stood with a rock clenched in each fist, arms rigid at her sides and called after them. “And don’t you forget it!”She was the Queen’s daughter and though the Lowlandians were not directly under the Orphan King’s Rule, he and his queen were their allies and all were compelled to keep Dani from harm, for political gain as much as for friendship. Januise was a font of helpful information.Theo was tilted precariously backwards on the brink of falling over. Terrified that such a fall would break his arms Dani dropped on her knees, flung her arms around his neck and pulled him to her with all her might. He rocked forward. His full weight bore down on her. For the first time she felt his true weight as she was forced back to sit on her heels. She tried to compensate by digging her toes in but the packed earth and rock shelf offered nothing in which to dig. Her sneakers just slid across the topsoil. They were about to fall over and there was a real possibility that she would be crushed under him but then his chest and stomach muscles bunched and he managed to stop his body’s forward momentum and between that and her pathetic resistance they steadiedFor a moment they stared at each other, frozen in time, their bodies leaning together when a distant electrical current frizzed between them interrupting his mixed expression of anger and admiration.Neither spoke.Dani heard sobbing and was mortified to realize it was she who sounded so mortally wounded. She shook with rage and sorrow. Ashamed, she dropped her gaze and blindly searched among the few rocks left in her handmade bag until her fingers curled around a cool smooth handle. She withdrew her hand and saw for the first time a small four inch obsidian blade, hand hewn and bound to a plain bone handle with purple leather cord. She met Theo’s eyes. When had he put it there? Never mind that, when had he made it? Never mind that, Dani. She put the sharp blade to use slicing the rope that bound Theo to the heavy branch. The hobbling ropes were piled on the ground behind him. Who had detached them and why? The obsidian blade made quick work of the rope on Theo’s right. The log sagged but when it did the left end of the log pushed up hard on Theo’s left shoulder. He groaned from the sudden excruciating pain. With renewed hope Dani reached across the branch and went to work on the remaining coils of rope. Theo wrenched his right arm free. Yes. Yes.He was coming untethered.Good. Once she freed his left arm he would have a good chance to escape and she would do her best to stand in the way of anyone who tried to stop him. But instead of working with her to free his left arm he ignored her efforts and with his right arm encircled her waist. He rotated his shoulder into her, turned her around, came forward onto his knees and laid her flat on the ground. He leaned over her.Her face was hot. Her head hurt and her turbulent heart sounded loud and so frantic, beating fierce inside her ribcage and then at the base of her throat. Why did Theo not run?Theo’s face was above her, his expression stern.“Calm yourself, Danielle.” He ordered. “Calm down.”Run! Her mouth formed the word but no sound came with it. Theo did not run. Maddie’s voice impeded, giving orders, demanding explanation.Theo was torn from Dani’s line of sight. In time they had his arms bound to the log again and his body hobbled. But still she heard his voice, calm and reassuring, telling her to take slow even breaths. But she couldn’t. She felt cold, frail and alone. She had failed to save Theo. Maddie squatted beside her and covered her hand with hers. She took the small knife away and Dani let her. With one arm braced on her knee, with the knife in her hand Maddie pulled Dani into a sitting position and considered her with a thoughtful, disapproving frown.“This is pointless, Little Sister. We will not let you take him.” “I hate you.” Dani said with a venom that belied how fragile and insignificant she felt.“I understand.” Maddie said with self-possessed patience. She was so regal in that moment, speaking without any hint of snobbery, so like her father that Dani wanted to shriek. “You have a duty to your friend but I have a duty to my people.” Maddie sympathized. It was there in her eyes, her expression stern but caring. “You are outnumbered. Please stop this one woman insubordination before you hurt yourself.”It was too late. Dani’s head was all swimmy with vertigo. She heard panting, but at least she was no longer crying. She pushed away from Maddie, curled up on the ground beside Theo, wrapped her arms tightly about his waist and rested her head on his chest. Just let anyone try to separate them. If they so much as leaned in her direction they would have a fight on their hands. Terrible weariness descended taking away her energy in that way that always motivated Theo to rearrange their packs in order to pick her up and carry her. She spoke to Theo’s perturbed expression and ignored Maddie completely. “I won’t let them have you Theo. They can’t have you.” She could barely get a word out. Physical exhaustion from the demanding labor earlier in the day, emotional hysteria coupled with the trauma of discovering Theo being abused and the humiliation of realizing her own behavior was out of control and incomprehensible even to her. What motivated it? The physical connection to him alone filled her with an inexplicable sense of safety. Why? It was incongruent with his current hobbled condition: it was physically impossible for him to protect himself, let alone Dani. But she tightened her hold curling her fingers into his soft leather jerkin. Just let them try to pull her off him. Dani geared herself up for further battle, calling on reserves she did not know she possessed, as hands took hold of her and tugged.“Leave her be.” Theo’s voice was sharp with warning.“What do you propose to do, criminal?” Maddie’s tone was equally sharp, but with derision. “She is no longer your concern.”Theo persisted. “Give her room. Give her time to calm….” He was cut off by a blow. Dani felt his body shudder and heard the horrible loud crack. His body swayed. She gripped him even harder and howled her displeasure, she had no time for words, not time for rational thought, all she could do was kick out viciously at whoever was trying to pry her off Theo and contort her lower body in a vain attempt to break their determined hold on her.“Do not presume to tell me what to do.”When Theo spoke again, there was calmness in his voice that was more terrifying than anything Dani had ever heard his self assuredness full of menace and promise. “What will you tell the Queen when Danielle’s heart fails her? She is not yet acclimated; this commotion is only doing her harm and your attempts to control her will fail. She will keep on like this until she collapses. You want her life on your hands, keep using force, but you know when you took us into custody she was in very good health. She has been in your care for one day and already she is nearly done in.”“Is that a threat?”“I am in no position to pose a threat to anyone. I can only appeal to your good grace.” His voice was like acid. The very sound of it brought instant calm to Dani and she stopped howling at once, even as the hands struggling to separate her from Theo let go. Maddie’s people had likely responded to some unspoken command on her part, so finely attuned as they were to her.All through this debacle Dani kept her eyes squeezed tight, mostly to keep threatening tears from spilling over into the kind of heedless sobbing that she had succumbed to once already. She could not bear to humiliate herself like that again. Damnable tears. Damnable weeping; it was the weapon of the helpless. At least the howling served to intimidate their captors, the mad quality of it could unhinge even the most determined level headed assailant, but tears would only illicit pity. Since when did she turn to weeping to express herself, the girl who had not shed a tear in more than seven years?“Calm down, Danielle.”Dani clung to him taking comfort from his strong body, and its radiant heat against the encroachment of the cool evening air, finding comfort in the stern reprimand in his voice. She dared not speak, because tears still lurked just beneath the surface, her heart was so filled with fear and sorrow and pain and loss, how was she ever to overcome its influence when she was incapable of naming its source?“Breathe deep, Danielle. Remember, deep calming breaths.”I’m trying, I’m trying. But all she managed were a few ragged gasps.Theo stopped trying to talk her through and fell silent, so for a time while her breathing shuddered and her heart thudded and her head blazed with pain, she listened to the rhythm of his heart, concentrated on the steady rise and fall of his chest, until she became aware of his voice, speaking in a low rhythmic pattern. Only slowly she realized he was quoting the Psalter. Psalm 139, to be exact.“Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it….”She recognized it because it had been Mama’s particular favorite, and Mama had read her Psalter religiously, every day all through Dani’s childhood, often reading it to Dani like a picture book, holding her on her lap but hiding the book quickly whenever Daddy came home unexpectedly. “… where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven you are there… your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me….”Once Mama told her about Grammy and said that not only had Grammy helped her find her love and talent for writing but had passed on to Mama her abiding faith in God. And Mama’s dearest wish for her was that she too would be captured by the same faith.Dani did not know about that. “… you knitted me together in my mother’s womb….”She enjoyed the sound of Theo’s voice and took comfort in knowing that these were not mere words to him; he believed them and from the quality of his recitation she did not doubt that he quoted the Psalm as much for his own peace of mind as for hers. “…in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them…Before she knew it Dani was breathing deeply, sliding swiftly toward sleep.“Search me, oh God, and know my heart…see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”After a quiet moment, the last thing she heard was Theo’s whisper: “That’s my girl. Sleep now. When you wake up you will feel better.”She came awake gasping for breath staring up into Theo’s concerned face.“You were having a nightmare.”“Tell me about it.” Her whole body quivered. She looked around. It was dark. The time was anyone’s guess. The tent was ablaze with light as if something special was happening. Above the sloping roof of the tent the dim hint of blue light shivered among the trees betraying the first sliver of the moon’s fulling cycle. It appeared everyone was in the tent but Theo, Dani, a four-man bodyguard and the unseen sentries in the surrounding wood.A wool blanket was puddled in her lap. She pulled it up to her shoulders, turned and snuggled against Theo. Dani relaxed while the details of her creepy dream slipped away. They sat in companionable silence for several minutes until Theo opened his mouth and spoiled it.“Now that you are awake, they will take you up to the tent.”So far no one had shown any indication that was about to happen.“I’ll fight them,” Dani promised.“Yes. I see now I cannot bully you into staying out of trouble. Be that as it may I want you to do as you are told. As Maddie sees it, you are the one who needs protecting.”“From you? Don’t be ridiculous.” “Our time together is over; you must accept it, Danielle. Over. Stop giving Maddie a hard time and forget about me; she is only thinking of your best interest. My predicament is my own doing and you have to accept it.”“You are my friend Theo; I won’t turn my back on you.”“Eventually you will wish you had.”“I doubt that.”His expression was troubled and then he changed the subject abruptly.“You were dreaming about your mother.”“How would you know?”“You spoke in your sleep.”“I did not.”“Just before you woke you said, ‘The devil is in the house.’” He whispered dramatically. “And then in a frightened voice; ‘Mommy.’”She was shaken as much because she had said something like that aloud as from the reminder of the dream. She shrugged to emphasize how little she cared about a silly, insignificant dream.“So? It was just a dream.”Two figures emerged from the tent.“Your mother’s journal is in my haversack.” Theo said, looking past her and changing the subject yet again.“So?”“You have my permission to go in and get it.” Next Chapter: Chapter 16

her over.“Let us go get some dinner.”They had been traveling downhill laterally in a southeasterly direction since leaving the long underground passage hugging the mountain slopes until they finally come upon a frothy rushing river. They heard the river a half day before they reached it. Theo called a halt early, well before sunset in order to set up shelter long square cave behind a massive waterfall. Theo led her out and down to the shore and took up position downstream near several large rocks surrounding a dark pool to one side of the fast moving water. The pool was sheltered beneath a copse of overhanging trees, a species she had not seen before.“A Malnewt grove,” Theo explained. “They only grow on river banks. See those buds there? That is where the fruit grows, a sweet delicious treat and in late summer after the fruit dies off it leaves behind a most nutritious and tasty nut. Thus the name: ‘Malnewt.’” “Twice fed.” Dani supplied. Their most curious feature was that they were only slightly taller than Theo, the intricately woven branches fanning out overhead like an umbrella.Theo unwound his thread and affixed a tiny newt – found after turning over a few smaller rocks near the shore -- to the bone hook.“Do you know how to fish?”“Not without a pole.” She had done plenty of pole fishing but had never learned to fish with a line.He proceeded to teach her how to throw out the line, where to throw it so that the current would carry it under the overhanging boulders where the fish stayed during the heat of the day and how to jiggle the line to draw the fish to the bait and when to know that a fish was nibbling. It was such a homely moment it reminded her of fishing trips with Uncle Bobby and Uncle Martin and Grandpa McHugh. How she had loved spending time with her uncles and her cousins, getting as far away from the stressful atmosphere at home. She had done some fishing with Henry and Patrice, her paternal grandparents, but it was never as much fun. Henry did not have the patience of her Uncles and Patrice always insisted on telling them how everything could be done so much better if they would just do it her way. She never let up and she had always insisted that Walter accompany them; he would pretend to be happy to be Dani’s daddy just to fool Patrice who bought his lies hook line and sinker and their conversation always came around to what a looser Mama was as a mother, a daughter in law, a wife and a woman.It was the only thing the three ever agreed on.“Danielle, pay attention, you have one on the line.”She tried to hand the line back to Theo, but instead he positioned himself behind her and held her hands and helped her guide it in, winding the line around her hand, laughing and coaching her and praising her until the heavy beast – it was as long as his forearm and three times as thick, a yellow monster with swipes of blue across its back and black fins and a rash of pink speckles on the underside. It was a wonder it did not snap the line. It hung heavy and dripping a few inches from her fingers, beating the air with its massive tail fin shedding cold drops of water everywhere. It was a strain to hold its weight with her two hands and both arms folded up and pressed hard against her body. Theo quickly hooked his fingers into its gills He removed the hook, turned and laid the fish – it resembled a pike -- flat on the rock and brought the hilt of his knife down in its head twice and proceeded to gut and clean it. Dani, still flush with the catch and his encouraging words and reeling from her unwanted memories watched. She had cleaned plenty of fish in her time, as always under the guiding tutelage of her uncles and found herself anticipating a meal of fire roasted fish which would be an excellent change from the jerky and the rodent stew they had subsisted on for so long. When Theo had done, throwing all the entrails, the head and the skin and bones into the river he handed the knife to her with instruction to cut away some large leafs from a nearby plant – six in all and never more than one from each plant -- and washed the fish in the river while she did as he commanded.Back at the fire, Theo cut up one half of the fish into six pieces and wrapped each in one of the broad leafs that he then buried in the coals he had raked to the edge of the fire.While the fish steaks cooked he handed her a long thin bone knife extracted from a pouch in his large pack and taught her how to fillet the remaining half of the fish into thin strips which they then draped over wooden rods – two long and spindly green branches with the leaves stripped off and braced over two iron rods embedded in the rock over the fire pit – the first sign of human habitation they had come across since leaving Theo’s wintering cave.. Dani ate with more appetite than she had enjoyed since her arrival. For the first time in a long time, she realized with a spurt of joy she felt real hunger and when the steaks were ready she ate two chunks – all her stomach would hold – while Theo devoured the rest.After their meal, Theo arranged her stretched and dried pelt near the fire pit and piled on several wet pieces of blue cedar creating quite a bit of smoke.“There. By morning your hide will be ready for use and the fish will be dry.”They retreated out of the way and settled in for the evening.In the morning Theo announced they would stay for a few days to fish and forage, he said, to rest and replenish their stores before moving deeper into the river valley. It was an excellent location to smoke fish and skins because the mist generated by the falls helped mask the smoke.Dani had already been through mama’s letters: postcards, letters from friends she had made at summer camp, letters she had written to “Grammy” from summer camp – Dani presumed she had inherited them when Grammy died – two letters written from a boy named Collin who lived in Belfast, Ireland whom she had met when she visited Ireland with Grammy when she was fourteen. His letters were brief and unspectacular. They denoted a boy who did not know how to talk to a girl. The letters said little about Mama. One envelope was stuffed with several birthday cards celebrating Mama’s sixteenth birthday.So far Dani had ignored Mama’s journal but night after night she felt drawn to it. It was, after all, a window that would allow her to take a peek into Mama’s life and perhaps in its pages she might discover enough to help explain Mama’s choices, or at least to prepare her for their inevitable reunion. She needed all the fuel she could get. So after three days of filleting fish and gathering berries and roots and as their stay at the falls wound down, with her belly full of fish Dani picked up the journal with reluctance. It was well worn and had little hearts drawn into the pale green calico cloth cover in blue pen with names inside like Belle & Freddie; or Sara “Hearts” Barry. On the inside cover a note was written in a sprawling hand, the kind once taught in schools when penmanship was a requisite part of the curriculum.“Sara, Your thoughts are always important to me.Happy Sixteenth, Lovebird,Grammy”Dani knew that Mama had been very close to her grandmother. She was a legend in the family, a woman who had traveled in Europe during the depression and lived in England throughout the Second World War working as a correspondent for a national magazine. She met her husband there, an Air Force pilot named Bill. They married began their family and then returned to the states. She had retired from the newspaper business but had continued to write and was fairly well known for having produced several well received collections of essays, poems, and short stories. She had made regular contributions to the local editorial pages right up until the week she died. Locally she was beloved and remained to her last day an influential member of her parish.Dani skimmed through the early pages of Mama’s journal. The first page was all about her sixteenth birthday, how Grammy had organized a huge party, invited all her friends, the family and the parish Priest, Father Dunnehy, what a great party it was except that most of the boys seemed to gravitate to Angie – “AS USSUAL” -- and promised her journal to fill it with her most personal and private thoughts.In the early entries Mama devoted several pages to Barry. He joined her for lunch every day walked her home after school and carried her books for her and hung out at Friendly’s Restaurant with her and their gang of friends. He called her every night and they talked about their favorite sitcoms and TV movies and Robert Frost who was on the curriculum in English. They were in the same Science class and he stayed close to her when the class had hiked to the river behind the high school for a field survey. Most of the entries were short and expressed Mama’s anticipation that Barry seemed to be working up the courage to ask her a very important question, maybe about joining him at the homecoming game and dance or maybe even about going steady. Then all at once there was a one page entry consisting of one sentence in large capital letters where each word spanned the height of three lines: “I HATE BARRY EVANS!!!!!!”After that there was no more mention of him.For several weeks there was no more mention of anything. Dani wondered what Barry Evans had done that had hurt Mama so that she had stopped writing altogether.Dani tried to fit this child into the same room in her mind where her timid and jumpy mother lived and then tried to imagine that she was now the Queen of all the land she surveyed. It was a stretch. She could not imagine her mother growing up to be queen someday.There was an entry for Halloween, an entry for Thanksgiving. Then entries for the following days where Mama seemed to settle in and tried harder to write about serious subjects: current events, religion, a second set of ear piercings and an argument with her mother about it and some attempts at poetry. She recorded a dream about a midnight black Unicorn that she told Grammy she just knew belonged in their story and made a Christmas wish list of what she wanted and another list of the gifts she planned to give her family. She got a job working the counter at Burger King.Another single sentence entry was dated 12-16-1984.“Grammy died today.” The sentence occupied the top line of the page. The rest of the page remained empty.The next entry was dated June 1985.Dear Grammy, I met the perfect guy today. Belle and Nancy and I were eating ice cream cones at Stewarts today, sitting at the picnic table and in pulled a fire engine red pickup. Out climbed the most beautiful guy I have ever seen. He has thick wavy jet black hair and dark blue eyes. He was wearing black jeans, a blue plaid shirt over a black t-shirt, cowboy boots and a black cowboy hat. He winked and tipped his hat to us on his way into the store and when he came out a few minutes later with a six-pack of cola under his arm he stopped and looked right at me. My heart stopped. But you must know what I was thinking.I told him if he wanted to meet Angie he should look up the number and call her and he said, “Who’s Angie?”Then he took hold of my wrist and licked away the strawberry ice cream that had melted over my fingers.I was shocked.“You want to go for a ride?”I was so tempted to say “yes,” right there, or better yet to say nothing and just get into his truck and ride off into the sunset but I thought about what you would think of that and instead I wrote our number on the back of his hand.He said he would be in touch.Oh, Grammy, I hope, I hope he calls me. His name is Walter Knapp and he’s nineteen. His name is not so great, but I can forgive him that because he is so-o-o-o handsome and because he saw me. Grammy, he saw only me.Dani closed the journal with a thump and without even thinking she threw the thing into the fire sending up a shower of sparks.“What are you doing?” Theo rescued Mama’s journal from the fire with his bare hands and dropped it. It was barely singed. He shook his hand and sucked on two of his fingers.“Why did you do that?”Dani was incapable of giving him an answer. The room began to whirl. Her chest rose and fell with a succession of quick hard breaths.Theo dashed to her. He pressed his hand over her mouth and she grabbed it reflexively and tried to pull it away. He resisted. “You are hyperventilating. Breath in slowly through your nose. Take deep breaths. Calm down. Slow your breathing.”She followed his instructions with difficulty, but eventually her head cleared and her breathing normalized. When it did she leaned her head into Theo’s shoulder and immediately burst into tears. While she bawled like a baby, Theo counted her pulse.“Your pulse is a little high, Danielle. What happened?”She shook her head, sobbing. The very thought of her mother ever being attracted to that monster just made her sick all over, physically, mentally and spiritually. Worst of all she did not want to know that there had ever been a day when her parents had ever done anything so normal as to flirt. She shuddered.“Put that thing away where I can’t find it. I don’t ever want to see it again."Theo did not argue with her. She fell asleep leaning into him. Though she slept poorly, Dani recovered quickly from the attack. They moved on the next day. Next Chapter: Chapter 12 new Inkshares.BrowseBar(); Leaving

her over.“Let us go get some dinner.”They had been traveling downhill laterally in a southeasterly direction since leaving the long underground passage hugging the mountain slopes until they finally come upon a frothy rushing river. They heard the river a half day before they reached it. Theo called a halt early, well before sunset in order to set up shelter long square cave behind a massive waterfall. Theo led her out and down to the shore and took up position downstream near several large rocks surrounding a dark pool to one side of the fast moving water. The pool was sheltered beneath a copse of overhanging trees, a species she had not seen before.“A Malnewt grove,” Theo explained. “They only grow on river banks. See those buds there? That is where the fruit grows, a sweet delicious treat and in late summer after the fruit dies off it leaves behind a most nutritious and tasty nut. Thus the name: ‘Malnewt.’” “Twice fed.” Dani supplied. Their most curious feature was that they were only slightly taller than Theo, the intricately woven branches fanning out overhead like an umbrella.Theo unwound his thread and affixed a tiny newt – found after turning over a few smaller rocks near the shore -- to the bone hook.“Do you know how to fish?”“Not without a pole.” She had done plenty of pole fishing but had never learned to fish with a line.He proceeded to teach her how to throw out the line, where to throw it so that the current would carry it under the overhanging boulders where the fish stayed during the heat of the day and how to jiggle the line to draw the fish to the bait and when to know that a fish was nibbling. It was such a homely moment it reminded her of fishing trips with Uncle Bobby and Uncle Martin and Grandpa McHugh. How she had loved spending time with her uncles and her cousins, getting as far away from the stressful atmosphere at home. She had done some fishing with Henry and Patrice, her paternal grandparents, but it was never as much fun. Henry did not have the patience of her Uncles and Patrice always insisted on telling them how everything could be done so much better if they would just do it her way. She never let up and she had always insisted that Walter accompany them; he would pretend to be happy to be Dani’s daddy just to fool Patrice who bought his lies hook line and sinker and their conversation always came around to what a looser Mama was as a mother, a daughter in law, a wife and a woman.It was the only thing the three ever agreed on.“Danielle, pay attention, you have one on the line.”She tried to hand the line back to Theo, but instead he positioned himself behind her and held her hands and helped her guide it in, winding the line around her hand, laughing and coaching her and praising her until the heavy beast – it was as long as his forearm and three times as thick, a yellow monster with swipes of blue across its back and black fins and a rash of pink speckles on the underside. It was a wonder it did not snap the line. It hung heavy and dripping a few inches from her fingers, beating the air with its massive tail fin shedding cold drops of water everywhere. It was a strain to hold its weight with her two hands and both arms folded up and pressed hard against her body. Theo quickly hooked his fingers into its gills He removed the hook, turned and laid the fish – it resembled a pike -- flat on the rock and brought the hilt of his knife down in its head twice and proceeded to gut and clean it. Dani, still flush with the catch and his encouraging words and reeling from her unwanted memories watched. She had cleaned plenty of fish in her time, as always under the guiding tutelage of her uncles and found herself anticipating a meal of fire roasted fish which would be an excellent change from the jerky and the rodent stew they had subsisted on for so long. When Theo had done, throwing all the entrails, the head and the skin and bones into the river he handed the knife to her with instruction to cut away some large leafs from a nearby plant – six in all and never more than one from each plant -- and washed the fish in the river while she did as he commanded.Back at the fire, Theo cut up one half of the fish into six pieces and wrapped each in one of the broad leafs that he then buried in the coals he had raked to the edge of the fire.While the fish steaks cooked he handed her a long thin bone knife extracted from a pouch in his large pack and taught her how to fillet the remaining half of the fish into thin strips which they then draped over wooden rods – two long and spindly green branches with the leaves stripped off and braced over two iron rods embedded in the rock over the fire pit – the first sign of human habitation they had come across since leaving Theo’s wintering cave.. Dani ate with more appetite than she had enjoyed since her arrival. For the first time in a long time, she realized with a spurt of joy she felt real hunger and when the steaks were ready she ate two chunks – all her stomach would hold – while Theo devoured the rest.After their meal, Theo arranged her stretched and dried pelt near the fire pit and piled on several wet pieces of blue cedar creating quite a bit of smoke.“There. By morning your hide will be ready for use and the fish will be dry.”They retreated out of the way and settled in for the evening.In the morning Theo announced they would stay for a few days to fish and forage, he said, to rest and replenish their stores before moving deeper into the river valley. It was an excellent location to smoke fish and skins because the mist generated by the falls helped mask the smoke.Dani had already been through mama’s letters: postcards, letters from friends she had made at summer camp, letters she had written to “Grammy” from summer camp – Dani presumed she had inherited them when Grammy died – two letters written from a boy named Collin who lived in Belfast, Ireland whom she had met when she visited Ireland with Grammy when she was fourteen. His letters were brief and unspectacular. They denoted a boy who did not know how to talk to a girl. The letters said little about Mama. One envelope was stuffed with several birthday cards celebrating Mama’s sixteenth birthday.So far Dani had ignored Mama’s journal but night after night she felt drawn to it. It was, after all, a window that would allow her to take a peek into Mama’s life and perhaps in its pages she might discover enough to help explain Mama’s choices, or at least to prepare her for their inevitable reunion. She needed all the fuel she could get. So after three days of filleting fish and gathering berries and roots and as their stay at the falls wound down, with her belly full of fish Dani picked up the journal with reluctance. It was well worn and had little hearts drawn into the pale green calico cloth cover in blue pen with names inside like Belle & Freddie; or Sara “Hearts” Barry. On the inside cover a note was written in a sprawling hand, the kind once taught in schools when penmanship was a requisite part of the curriculum.“Sara, Your thoughts are always important to me.Happy Sixteenth, Lovebird,Grammy”Dani knew that Mama had been very close to her grandmother. She was a legend in the family, a woman who had traveled in Europe during the depression and lived in England throughout the Second World War working as a correspondent for a national magazine. She met her husband there, an Air Force pilot named Bill. They married began their family and then returned to the states. She had retired from the newspaper business but had continued to write and was fairly well known for having produced several well received collections of essays, poems, and short stories. She had made regular contributions to the local editorial pages right up until the week she died. Locally she was beloved and remained to her last day an influential member of her parish.Dani skimmed through the early pages of Mama’s journal. The first page was all about her sixteenth birthday, how Grammy had organized a huge party, invited all her friends, the family and the parish Priest, Father Dunnehy, what a great party it was except that most of the boys seemed to gravitate to Angie – “AS USSUAL” -- and promised her journal to fill it with her most personal and private thoughts.In the early entries Mama devoted several pages to Barry. He joined her for lunch every day walked her home after school and carried her books for her and hung out at Friendly’s Restaurant with her and their gang of friends. He called her every night and they talked about their favorite sitcoms and TV movies and Robert Frost who was on the curriculum in English. They were in the same Science class and he stayed close to her when the class had hiked to the river behind the high school for a field survey. Most of the entries were short and expressed Mama’s anticipation that Barry seemed to be working up the courage to ask her a very important question, maybe about joining him at the homecoming game and dance or maybe even about going steady. Then all at once there was a one page entry consisting of one sentence in large capital letters where each word spanned the height of three lines: “I HATE BARRY EVANS!!!!!!”After that there was no more mention of him.For several weeks there was no more mention of anything. Dani wondered what Barry Evans had done that had hurt Mama so that she had stopped writing altogether.Dani tried to fit this child into the same room in her mind where her timid and jumpy mother lived and then tried to imagine that she was now the Queen of all the land she surveyed. It was a stretch. She could not imagine her mother growing up to be queen someday.There was an entry for Halloween, an entry for Thanksgiving. Then entries for the following days where Mama seemed to settle in and tried harder to write about serious subjects: current events, religion, a second set of ear piercings and an argument with her mother about it and some attempts at poetry. She recorded a dream about a midnight black Unicorn that she told Grammy she just knew belonged in their story and made a Christmas wish list of what she wanted and another list of the gifts she planned to give her family. She got a job working the counter at Burger King.Another single sentence entry was dated 12-16-1984.“Grammy died today.” The sentence occupied the top line of the page. The rest of the page remained empty.The next entry was dated June 1985.Dear Grammy, I met the perfect guy today. Belle and Nancy and I were eating ice cream cones at Stewarts today, sitting at the picnic table and in pulled a fire engine red pickup. Out climbed the most beautiful guy I have ever seen. He has thick wavy jet black hair and dark blue eyes. He was wearing black jeans, a blue plaid shirt over a black t-shirt, cowboy boots and a black cowboy hat. He winked and tipped his hat to us on his way into the store and when he came out a few minutes later with a six-pack of cola under his arm he stopped and looked right at me. My heart stopped. But you must know what I was thinking.I told him if he wanted to meet Angie he should look up the number and call her and he said, “Who’s Angie?”Then he took hold of my wrist and licked away the strawberry ice cream that had melted over my fingers.I was shocked.“You want to go for a ride?”I was so tempted to say “yes,” right there, or better yet to say nothing and just get into his truck and ride off into the sunset but I thought about what you would think of that and instead I wrote our number on the back of his hand.He said he would be in touch.Oh, Grammy, I hope, I hope he calls me. His name is Walter Knapp and he’s nineteen. His name is not so great, but I can forgive him that because he is so-o-o-o handsome and because he saw me. Grammy, he saw only me.Dani closed the journal with a thump and without even thinking she threw the thing into the fire sending up a shower of sparks.“What are you doing?” Theo rescued Mama’s journal from the fire with his bare hands and dropped it. It was barely singed. He shook his hand and sucked on two of his fingers.“Why did you do that?”Dani was incapable of giving him an answer. The room began to whirl. Her chest rose and fell with a succession of quick hard breaths.Theo dashed to her. He pressed his hand over her mouth and she grabbed it reflexively and tried to pull it away. He resisted. “You are hyperventilating. Breath in slowly through your nose. Take deep breaths. Calm down. Slow your breathing.”She followed his instructions with difficulty, but eventually her head cleared and her breathing normalized. When it did she leaned her head into Theo’s shoulder and immediately burst into tears. While she bawled like a baby, Theo counted her pulse.“Your pulse is a little high, Danielle. What happened?”She shook her head, sobbing. The very thought of her mother ever being attracted to that monster just made her sick all over, physically, mentally and spiritually. Worst of all she did not want to know that there had ever been a day when her parents had ever done anything so normal as to flirt. She shuddered.“Put that thing away where I can’t find it. I don’t ever want to see it again."Theo did not argue with her. She fell asleep leaning into him. Though she slept poorly, Dani recovered quickly from the attack. They moved on the next day. Next Chapter: Chapter 12 new Inkshares.BrowseBar(); Leaving