Chapter IV

“Gone!” Mrs. Eling gasped. “Why, I just can’t believe it! It was here only this morning! I saw it!”

“Are you sure, Mrs. Eling?” Alice asked. “Maybe you’re just remembering wrong.”

“No, no, dear. It was here, I tell you! Oh, what am I going to do?” She wrung her hands in despair.

“I suppose you would rather find the box for yourself than a thief finding it,” Alice said, more to herself than the elderly woman.

“Of course! I wouldn’t have minded not ever finding it, but for it to fall into the hands of thief! Oh!”

Chapter 4

A Trip to Germany

“I can’t wait!” Betty said excitedly as she and Pam packed their things for the trip.

Pam smiled and said, “are you ready now?”

I slumped on the old, green, tattered and completely need-to-throw-out arm chair. I picked up the bunch of bills that were sitting on the coffee table. Unpaid. I sighed in frustration. How could there be so many in such little time?

Just then, the phone rang. “Kristen?” No answer. I clambered off the easy chair like a graceful elephant. Elephants aren't graceful.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Mrs Richards?”

“Yes, it is.”

“This is Fred Filby from L J Hooker Real Estate, how are you today?”

I: Turning
turning from the things
I don't want to see
self-enforced prohibition
hiding me from me
hiding myself from others around
shaping myself
to fit them
and their needs
of who I ought to be
this shape-shifting confuses
I try to ignore it
ignore the fickle will
living inside
but when I break loose
and defy these
self-imposed boundaries
people wonder what's wrong
with me

Chapter 3

A STRANGE VISITOR

“Any luck?” Ronnie asked as Pam and Joe walked into the house.

Joe shook his head.

“We thought we’d found something, but it turned out just to be a piece of metal,” Pam said, smiling.

“That’s too bad,” Betty said. “But right now, Ronnie and I are going somewhere.”

“Where to?” Pam asked.

“We’re going over to Caroline and Jason's house. They just stopped by here a few minutes ago and asked if we could come over.”

Pam nodded. “Where’s mother?”

His hair was dark he was standing in front of her
Presenting the most divine
Gift in dollar-store tissue paper
His heart

Her hair was light she was standing slightly to the left
Heeled foot poised to run if
The offering was too much too soon
It was

He tried to chase her really he did
Through the night, in their cars, in their minds
He tried to make her see his reason
He couldn't

The sun set high on a cloudless sky
And a breeze o’er gently furling waves
Is starkly set against a group that is met
With tears and attempts to be brave.
Out on the sea that for others bring glee
Go the solemn and reminiscent band,
Of those who know one man whose now aglow
With the glory of the Father’s hand.
Passing the waves with faces grave
Until the small boat is stopped,
And a friend who was dear to the one spiritly near
Stands to speak as the boat gently rocked.
He was a great man, he was a dear man,

Reading
Rain patters on the roof and windows.
Inside, I can see my breath.
The wind is brawling violently
As the night sinks black as death.

A fire leaps from the molten glow
Of logs in the fireplace;
With a book and a quilt I sit quietly
And am lost in time and space.

Okay.

This is pretty weird.

So, I’m walking through a viking village in Iceland! And, is that, no way! It is! It’s Leif Erikson, the renowned Viking who was the first to come upon America and was the son of Erik the Red!

Chapter III

As Alice walked home from Jills house, she saw Mrs. Muller, an elderly widow, watering her garden.

She waved to her, but instead of waving in return, Mrs. Muller beckoned to her to come. Alice obeyed, and upon reaching the kindly woman, she led her inside. “Sit down, please, Alice,” she said.

Alice did so, a puzzled look on her pretty face.