Chapter 3

It didn’t take long to get to St. Pauls and the walk to the address we had been given didn’t take long either, considering that when we came up from the tube station the building was only on the opposite corner.

We walked across the road and along until we arrived at the main doors. It was still only around ten, but we went in and looked at the board inside to find the agency. We didn’t have enough time to find a café, so went up to the first floor and went into the reception. A very smart girl was at the desk.

“Can I help you?”

That Summer was a blisteringly hot one, with no real rain until nearly March. As a consequence, a lot of our time was spent at the beach, but I noted one slight change in the dynamics, in that both of our offspring were spending their own chunks of that time away from us, or at least beside us but not actually with us. Each was building their own social circle, and I was pleased beyond words, especially for LC.

Trail Drive
A Short Story

It was getting dark. The sun had already dropped below the horizon but on the plains the twilight lasts a little longer, so the stranger, drawn by the light of a fresh fire, could easily steer a horse through the low scrub.

The cattle were well settled in a basin where there was a small watercourse and some green grass alongside as well as tender tips on some of the brush. They would settle well and could be easily watched from just above the campsite where the water flowed out.

Chapter 12 — “Trail of Sparks.”

In the dream, I was there with Mona, and I went straight to the point.

“What I’d like, if you can do it, is a portal between my home in Alaska and my dream-home in the world Nancy lives in. My home is two doors down from hers. Um, no, I shouldn’t call it a portal because of the Portal People. Let’s say a doorway.”