Short Story

“They will find you there. I’m going to get you somewhere safe whether you want to or not.”

“Oh, yeah, there’s no stairs down. Helps keep us in,” Jagger says, standing closely behind me. “So now what, angle?”

A geocacher had spent a whole day playing find the next closest cache. By evening, he wasn’t even sure where he was, at least 50 miles from home. He had parked at a forest preserve ended up on a fairly deserted trail with just a couple caches he had found without incident. At this point according to his smartphone, there was only one cache left in the whole area, but it was just across from an overpass his trail was leading to. As he approached one end, there was a sign with the warning, DO NOT CROSS. He looked around. He hadn’t seen another person or car for some time. The overpass looked fairly normal, a wooden pedestrian walkway over tall trees flanking a fairly wide stream. No other way dry way to cross that he could see. He

“What I’m about to say is easier said than done. We need to remain calm, keep our wits about ourselves. Try to fight the potion.”

I saw beautiful, white smiles across the room. There were couples kissing and others counting down as the senseless crystal sphere in New York slid down a giant metal pole. With red wine for Grandma and sparkling grape juice for the younglings, a joyful celebration began. This was a new beginning for some, and for others, a continuation of what came before. Regardless, the community of friends and family laughed and rejoiced together as one.

know what came over me, but it will never happen again.” Karen replied, “I don’t know what kind of woman you think I am, but I’m not the easy lay and what makes you think I would get involve with a convict she said with a half-smile on her face?” Then she told him their session was over today. “Can I see you again on your next visit?” he asked. Sure, it’s part of my job to assist you, she said in a girlish way. He then stood up and shook her hand and said, it’s been a pleasure talking to you.

Devoid of movement or light, the cockpit's only hint of life was the insistent hum and faint bio-chemical stink within.

“Wait, hold on a second,” Selison calls out as he races to the doorway. “You can’t just say ‘let’s go’ like that without telling me what’s going on. I’m not even changed yet.”

“Here we are. Once I open this door, we’re going to attack fast and hard.”

Even though I was not running that day of the big 2017 Stockbridge Invitational, I had butterflies in my stomach. I was probably just about as nervous as the others on my team.

The first thing she did when she entered the room was take a shower. She had never thought she would miss the presence of a tub and hot water. Steam filled the small room and Clary relished the smell of the bar of soap on the sill below her and the shampoo provided that spread an aroma of pomegranate and cherry. She sighed and leaned her forehead against the wall so that the showerhead was spraying droplets of water on her back.

An unsatisfying supper of turkey along with a few sides short of all the trimmings had awaited Phillip when he got home from Inez’s place.

Apologies from Phelps followed an established routine. First came the words. Then a brief silence as he fought to justify his actions. But Tom knew, when it happened, his explanation would be thorough, heartfelt and sincere, and he sensed he would learn more about his father's disappearance in the coming minutes than in the previous six years.

“This… is quite a lot to prepare given the timeline,” Ignis fretted, looking at the Citadel’s schedule for their upcoming trip. “Is there any way to get an extension on this, General Drautos?”

“What don’t you understand by that?” I responded. “I told you, my Ayah always did.”