Yes, certainly some of this is repeat because I do want you to consider reading one story or the other or both.  Currently I am posting season one of the Avalon series, Monday and Friday on this Storyteller blog for free.  I am looking for an artist/illustrator if you know one.  Then again, who knows, maybe someone will consider it for a television show some day and I’ll end up make buckets of money.  You can say you read it here first.

Avalon is the story of people, three “men in black,” two marines, an elf and a half-elf who are sent into the deep past to save one man’s wife.  They succeed in the pilot episode, but lose their quick way home and thus they are forced to get home the long way – by way of the time gates and across the time zones that surround the many lives of the Kairos, the Watcher over History, the Traveler in Time.  That won’t be an easy journey.

You see, the Kairos never lives a quiet life, so there is no telling as they travel from time zone to time zone what they may have to confront.  And some of those confrontations may sneak up on them.  You see, they are not the only ones stuck in the past where they don’t belong.  Others have picked up their trail, some to follow them back into the future, but some are hunting them.

Currently posting:

Episode 7 (1.6) just concluded.  Episode 8 (1.7) will begin Friday.  The travelers become aware of the amulet of peace and prosperity which has been stolen from the Kairos.  They might be able to get it back for him if they can figure out what to do about the werewolf.

Work in Progress:

The second episode of season two finds the travelers in Egypt, the Nile Delta. Phoenix, the Kairos, a powerful fire starter thanks to the Aton-Ra is now happily married with children.  But Set, god of infertility bears a grudge against her and has sent a pack of night creatures to attack her in her happy home.  Needless to say, the guns of the travelers make a difference at first, but then Set intervenes more directly and that sparks some of the other gods in that jurisdiction to escalate the conflict.

That is 5051 words.

At the same time, I am continuing the story of the Storyteller – the one who was supposed to be their quick way home.  He sacrificed himself by leaping into the void to save that man’s wife, only now he is trapped in the Second Heavens and is terribly confused. 

I am currently presenting the Anatomy of a Storyteller for free on my Word & Spirit blog on Mondays only.  Plans are to present it on this Storyteller blog at a future date since it connects to the Avalon events in a real way, but for now it is over there.  Why?  Because for all of its fiction, it is a parallel to my life and memoir-like.  You would not know it by reading it, but…

So Anatomy, “The House of the Lord” is 6209 words, and that makes my total for the second week plus: 11, 260 words.  Added to my first week plus total of 13, 240 and we are at 24,500.  I was hoping for closer to 26,000, but this will do.

            Boston pulled herself into Lockhart’s arms, sure they were going to die.  She looked up into his eyes as he held her close and the strangest thought crossed her mind.  She did not want to die without knowing, so she kissed him, full and firm on the lips, and he kissed her back.  When they separated, they looked each other in the eyes, momentarily oblivious to their impending doom.  They shook their heads at the same time and the same word escaped their lips.  “No,” and they almost smiled.

            The fog began to lift and Boston saw two things at once.  She saw Roland right beside them, still.  She was not sure what all he saw, but she was sure he saw something.  She was overwhelmed with the need to tell him she was sorry and that she didn’t mean it.  But she said nothing as the faces became clear not too many yards away.  Those faces looked twisted and distorted.  Some hardly looked human.  She turned her own face and buried it in Lockhart’s chest.  She tried to get away from the sight, but it was too late.  Those images were burned into her retinas and her brain.  Alexis screamed.  Katie Harper also screamed, but it was words.

            “Decker, no!  We can’t kill them.  That will just set them free.”

            Doctor Procter jumped forward, straight toward the faces.  He turned and walked backwards in the direction of the demonized people as a smile spread across his own face.  Everyone else saw the tears form in his eyes as he spoke gleefully.  “Kill them.  Kill them all and have your supper.”  He pointed at his companions, tripped over a root and fell straight to his back.  He began to struggle, but he could not get up.  What is more, the demonized people appeared to be unmoving.  They were frozen in place, and the travelers could only stare at them in return.

            Doctor Procter screamed this time.  They heard the horse before they saw it.  It was indeed a medieval-looking knight from the High Middle Ages, covered head to toe in dazzling armor.  The lance was long and looked deadly,  but there was something of grace, perhaps chivalry in the knights demeanor.  He said nothing and simply walked his well trained steed until he stood beside the Doctor.  Then he lowered his lance and touched Doctor Procter gently on the chest where the heart was.  A brilliant white light spread slowly all of the way around the Doctor until he was bathed in it.

            Now the Doctor truly screamed and writhed, or something was writhing.  It looked devoid of all light, not simply dark or black.  It looked like the enemy of light, but it was no match for the lance.  The darkness slowly separated from the doctor and began to squirm like a wounded snake.  It tried to lash out again and again, but the light from the lance contained it.  At last, the darkness began to dissipate.  It was outmatched and had nowhere to go.  It became like smoke from and extinguished fire.  It turned pale gray and vanished at last like that smoke in a strong gust of wind.

            Still without a word spoken, the Knight of the Lance turned his horse around and step by step he became insubstantial until he disappeared, not behind a tree, but simply in the air.  The travelers all stepped up to the Doctor’s side.  They were heedless of the others at the moment.  Doctor Procter was smiling and glowing a little with residual light.

            He began with one word.  “Free.”  Then he pulled the amulet from beneath his shirt.  “Boston.  You must take this.  You understand it better than the others, and I trust you will guide everyone safely home.”  He took it from around his neck and held it out.  Boston accepted it, but her eyes were quickly too full of tears to see it properly.  “Alexis.  I am glad you are safe.  I still remember you scampering around the workplace, and Roland, you were worse.”

            “Eh?”  Roland glanced at his sister before he looked down at the man.

            “Yes.  Always breaking things, isn’t that right, Mingus?”  Mingus nodded, but he could not answer.  “Anyway, I think Mister Lincoln is a fine man so you leave them alone.  And Mister Lockhart, I am sorry I never really got to know you properly.”  He paused to look around at his surroundings and gave the impression in his eyes that this was the first he was seeing of it.  “I am more sorry that all those years of study will now be missed, eh Mingus?  I would dearly love to actually see and experience the lives of the Traveler.”  He began to have trouble breathing and Alexis and Katie Harper both began to reach for him, but in a flash of light that made everyone blink and throw their hands toward their eyes, he vanished utterly from the world.

            “God rest his soul,” Lockhart breathed.  The elves did not object since after all, Doctor Procter was half-human. 

            “We better move before these others come around,” Captain Decker said.  He nudged Lockhart.  Lockhart looked at Boston and it took her a second to remember and check the amulet.  She pointed, and they walked around the mass of men and a few women who were still frozen in place.  The time gate was barely a hundred yards away.  Boston slipped the amulet around her neck as they hurried through.  They heard the demons behind them begin to stir.

            Everyone woke in the night at one time or another.  Some people screamed in the night and tears could be heard every now and then.  It was hard to tell if they were tears of fear or tears for those friends and relatives now lost to the demons – the very ones pursuing them with nothing in mind but to kill and destroy.  Lincoln woke when Alexis woke and they whispered for hours.  Boston got up when the moon was high and found Roland sitting quietly a short distance from the camp.  Captain Decker hardly slept and kept his rifle close.  Lockhart found Katie up and they talked for a while.  They both needed reassurance.  Mingus joined them after a while and stayed up long after they tried to get some rest.

            By morning, all nerves were stretched to the limit, and hardly helped when Xiang gathered them for her good-byes.  “God willing as we move north the gate will catch up to you before the demons do.  They are two days behind, but they move faster than we do.  My people rested some when the rain came, but we have five days to go.”  She shook her head.  She was all but confessing that they would be caught.

            “We could slow them down a little,” Captain Decker suggested.

            “No!”  Xiang shouted.  “That is the one thing you must not do.  Killing them will just set the demons free to infest others, maybe you.  They cannot possess you without your permission, but the lies and temptations can be very persuasive.”

            “But, if we can’t kill them –“ Captain Decker did not know what to say.  He had to think of options.

            “A sleeping gas?”  Lieutenant Harper suggested.

            “Demons don’t sleep,” Xiang said.  “That might just make them act like zombies.  Come to think of it, killing them might not stop them either.”

            “Great!”  Lincoln frowned.  “So what do we do?”

            “Avoid them,” Lockhart said.  “Go out of our way if necessary and wait until they pass.”  Boston reached for Lockhart’s hand, and he gave it to her.  Touch was something they all needed.

            “Yes, avoid them,” Mingus agreed, and he put his hand on his son’s shoulder.  Roland looked toward the rising sun.  It was pale and wan, though there was hardly a discernable cloud since the rain cleared off.  Everyone had been hoping for a bright, sunny day.  It would have lifted all of their spirits, but it was not to be.

            Unlike the day before, everyone talked as they walked.  There was something about hearing a voice, even their own voices that kept them from collapsing in dread of the demons.  They spoke about memories and tried to relate the good times.  They tried to laugh, but by lunch even the best of times felt strangely ominous and became harder to recall while the wicked and sinful moments of life bombarded them with pain and regrets. 

            Mingus, Roland, and to a smaller extent Alexis felt the oncoming evil as a palpable fear.  Mingus did collapse a couple of times, but Lincoln and Lockhart were right there to lift him and get him walking again.  “It can’t be much further,” he kept saying, but they kept walking.  Lincoln did his best to let Alexis lean on him.  Roland did his best to keep breathing and to keep his feet moving.

            Boston squeezed herself between Lockhart and Roland, and held on to one or the other at times for the comfort of their touch.  Roland smiled at first when she took his arm, but by afternoon, his expression turned to pity and sorrow.  Lockhart’s expression remained stoic throughout, but after lunch there was a moment when he reached out for her hand.

            Katie Harper felt the sweat on her brow.  There was a chill in the air like it was still early in the spring, but the sweat could not be helped.  She was burning, perhaps with a fever, or perhaps, she thought she was getting too close to the lake of fire that waited for the demons in the deepest pit of Hell.  She checked and kept checking to be sure Captain Decker’s rifle had the safety on.  He did not seem to mind.  He did not seem to notice.  His eyes simply darted back and forth between the trees and bushes like he expected some terror to jump out at them any minute.

            “It can’t be much further,” Mingus droned and shook his senses to keep to his feet.

            “Shouldn’t we be looking to sidestep soon?”  Boston asked.  When Lockhart looked at her with incomprehension on his face, she explained.  “To get off to the side and hide until they pass us by.”  It took a minute for her words to penetrate.

            “Doctor Procter?”  Lockhart spoke to the man out front.

            “This way,” the Doctor said in a voice that was too sprightly, like he was becoming excited.  Lockhart had been watching the man since the beginning and especially since their visit with the Ophir.  He came suddenly awake and sharp at the sound of that voice.

            “This way,” He said, and turned the group ninety degrees to the Doctor’s prescription.  Doctor Procter clearly wanted to object, but as the group turned aside, a thick fog rolled in instantly, or as Alexis later surmised, it suddenly appeared in their midst.  No one could see more than a foot ahead, and as they were all in the process of turning aside, some turned too far and some not far enough.  It did not take many steps for them to separate.

            “Hello?”  “Where are you?”  “Come toward my voice.”  They all spoke, but the fog echoed their words and threw them back at the speaker and made orientation and direction impossible.  Instead of finding and getting closer to each other, they walked further apart.  Only Lincoln and Alexis held on to each other, and Boston, whose sweaty hand was not about to let go of Lockhart.  Then everyone stopped at once.  They heard a voice.  It was raspy, cold, chilling in a way none of them had ever heard before or hoped to hear again.  It was the voice of death.  It was the voice of damnation.

            “They are here.”

            “Get with the program, Decker.”  Lieutenant Harper frowned.  “Sir,” she added to be safe.

            “It’s alright, Katie,” Keng smiled for them all.  “I was just getting ready to leave.  The village is not far behind.”

            “You’re older,” Alexis said. 

            “I’m older than I was when I died,” Keng responded.  “I guess that sounds a little strange.”

            “From you?”  Lockhart shook his head.

            “Mind if I write that one down?”  Lincoln asked.

            Keng just broadened his grin and retrieved the crutch the other man had been holding.  “See you,” he said and went away.  A woman took his place and several people gasped except Mingus who merely nodded.

            “Keng and Xiang are genetic reflections,” he said.  When the others did not appear to understand, he added, “They share the exact same genetic code altered only for male and female.  They are like identical twins of the opposite sex.”

            Alexis hit her father to quiet him.  That was not why they gasped.  Xiang was bent over.  Her spine was cracked though not yet broken.  One knee looked like it was shattered and healed badly, and her ribs were wrapped and caked with dried blood like she had a wound that would not close.  Above all, her face was twisted.  It looked raw as if the flesh itself had been beaten off of her.

            “I’m dying,” Xiang said.  “Everyone knows it.  You might as well know it, too.”  The young man beside her bowed his head.  Xiang tried to smile for him.  “But I won’t let go until all of my friends and neighbors are safe.”

            “But what happened?”  Boston could not contain her words.

            “My husband.”  Xiang spoke without flinching.  “The chief demon leading the ones who are chasing us.  I have no doubt they have something like this in mind for us all if they can catch us.”

            The young man beside her spoke up.  “They pulled Nanhai’s skin from his body and all of it, even after he was dead.  They left only his face intact so we would know him.”

            Everyone looked at Xiang with mouths agape.  “They pinned his eyelids back,” she said.  “They left his mouth open in a scream so we would find him that way.”

            “And they are chasing you?”  Lincoln looked off in the direction they had been walking as Xiang nodded.

            “Now!”  Xiang got their attention before she had to pause and cough.  The coughing looked painful.  “Mingus, please get a fire started.  The wood is wet and it will need your help, but don’t wear yourself out.  You will probably have to help several families start their fires.  Blossom – sorry Boston.  Blossom, go and say goodnight to your husband but come right back before dark – darker.  Roland, take Boston and Katie on the hunt.  Shengi has made the game plentiful, so the hunting should be easy.”

            “Take them on a hunt?”  Roland asked.

            Xiang paused to look up at the encroaching darkness.  There was a chill in the air that was far colder than the end of a cold rain should be.  “I don’t want anyone alone.”

            “We can set up camp here,” Lockhart waved and Captain Decker leaned his rifle against a tree so he could shed his backpack and get his tent.

            “Can I help?”  Alexis’ eyes never wavered from Xiang. 

            Xiang shook her head.  “Some warm bread I have heard so much about, and some water.  That is all I need.”

            “No, I mean –“

            “I know what you mean,  You can’t help me.  Shengi and Nagi can’t help me.  It is time for me to pass on, you see?  If I don’t die, how will I be born again?”  Xiang began to hobble away.

            Alexis stepped up and pulled Xiang’s good arm over her shoulder.  Xiang was willing.  “Actually, Shengi already said I was not allowed to heal you, but I thought I would ask anyway.” 

            “Not a good idea to do what the gods have forbidden,” Xiang said, but she smiled.  It was not easier for Xiang to have help walking, but not any worse and she did not mind the company.

            “Where are we headed?”  Alexis asked.

            “The top of that little hill,” Xiang answered and stopped.  She turned her head to be sure no one was watching.  Then Alexis found her arm around a twelve-year-old boy whom she recognized right away.

            “Pan.”

            “Uh-huh,” Pan said.  “Race you.”  They ran up the hill.  Alexis was winded at the top though Pan was not.

            “I am young again.” Alexis caught her breath.  “But not that young.”

            Pan just laughed, sat down with his back to a tree, got comfortable and traded places with Xiang once again.  “Well I certainly could not run uphill,” Xiang said.

            Alexis sat beside her and for a long time they sat in silence as they watched down below.  The people came in and set up makeshift tents and shelters for the night.  Campfires were lit, though they appeared dismal and dim in that atmosphere and no doubt provided little warmth against the cold.  Alexis finally had to ask. 

            “It is the ones after us,” Xiang explained.  “Their very nearness projects a terrible pall around everything.  I am not surprised with your magic you are still sensitive to it.  All my little ones are.”

            “Boston, Katie, Lockhart and Captain Decker are sensitive to it, too.”

            Xiang nodded.  “Not Lincoln?”  She asked.

            “Him most of all,” Alexis answered and smiled before they were interrupted by the arrival of the goddess, Nagi.  Alexis turned down her eyes.

            “Shoot!”  Nagi said.  “I thought I was getting good at appearing like a normal mortal.”  She turned to Alexis as she sat on Xiang’s other side.  “Xiang is teaching me how to do that and how to block my mind to the thoughts and lives of others so I can walk among people and see and hear for myself.  You know, it gets quite boring after a while knowing all the answers up front.”

            Xiang just smiled at the goddess.  “It might work better if you didn’t appear out of nowhere.”

            “Oh, yeah.”  Nagi apparently had something else on her mind.  She was smiling too much.  “Stop it,” she told Alexis.  “I know you are older than I am, though I can’t imagine how that is possible.”  Alexis simply looked at Xiang.  “I should have guessed.”

            “She was born an elf,” Xiang confessed.

            “No way,” Nagi reached for Alexis’ hand and Alexis found that a very curious thing for a goddess to do.  “You see, I didn’t know that in advance.  It is so much more fun this way.  But –“   She turned again to Xiang.  “I didn’t know you could do that.  That is remarkable, for a mortal I mean.”

            Xiang shrugged as well as she could and changed the subject.  “You and Shengi getting along?”

            Nagi let go of Alexis’ hand and looked away.  “Is it obvious.”

            “Even without reading minds,” Xiang nodded.

            “He said if I was willing to help clean up the mess, we might form a partnership.  We sealed the bargain with a kiss, a real kiss.”  Nagi looked up at Alexis.  “But you are married.  You know.”

            “Husbands have their good points,” Alexis admitted before she remembered and looked at Xiang.  Xiang’s husband was demon possessed and leading the ones chasing the people.  It was an awkward moment, but in the perfect timing the Little Ones so often show, Truffles the fairy chose that moment to zoom up.

            “Lady, Lady!”  Truffles spouted.  “Your children are looking for you and Myming is crying.”

            “Husbands have their good points,” Xiang said as Truffles acknowledged the two other women.  They watched as the fairy paused, got big eyes and turned again toward Nagi. 

            “Lady,” the fairy breathed and curtsied properly.

            Xiang started to get up.  It looked painful so Nagi interrupted.  “Let me,” she said and Xiang, Alexis and Truffles found themselves at the bottom of the hill where the children were gathered.

            The morning was gray and overcast and the travelers were not in the best of spirits.  Alexis spent much of the morning arguing with her father.

            “I’m telling you it was a man on horseback, and horses have not been tamed yet or I am sure Shengi god would have given us some.”

            “So one man got ahead of the game.  That proves nothing.”

            “But he was in armor.”

            “But it was dark.”

            “The moon was close enough to full, and he had a lance besides.”

            “Maybe it was a spear that just looked like a lance.  All I am saying is the Knights of the Lance arrived mysteriously on Avalon and the innumerable isles when Lydia brought in that legion of demons.  God bless her, she could not help it.  But there has not been a sighting of a Knight of the Lance for a thousand years.  You have never seen one.  I have never seen one.  I’m just saying you might be mistaken,” Mingus was firm and tried to end the conversation there.

            “You are just saying you don’t believe me.”  Alexis was not going to let him get in the last word.

            By the time they all stopped for lunch, no one was much in the mood for speaking.  Even so, the matter between Mingus and Alexis was heated and only settled a bit when Boston overheard the argument.

            “I saw a knight, too,” she said.  “It was on the ridge of the Ophir, by Ranear’s village three time zones back.”

            “Why didn’t you say anything?”  Lockhart asked.

            “Because when I looked a second time, it wasn’t there.  I thought I was imagining things.”

            Lieutenant Harper inched closer at that point and spoke up softly.  “I saw it.”  Every eye turned to her.  “All the way back on the first day when we were looking down on Shinar and the tower.  I caught the glint of light in my binoculars.  When I looked close, it was clearly a knight in armor on horseback.  He rode away over the tower hill.”  Lockhart just stared at her.  “Like Boston,” she defended herself.  “I thought I just imagined it.”

            Captain Decker jumped and raised his rifle.  He was holding it tight and sweating.  “Did you hear that?”

            “I’ve been seeing things out of the corner of my eyes all morning,” Roland admitted.

            “Me, too.  Seeing and hearing things.”  Lincoln looked around but there was nothing to see.

            “Now that you mention it,” Mingus looked up.  “The atmosphere here is a bit like standing on the edge of the land of the dead.”

            Lincoln looked at the elder elf and frowned.  “I wish you hadn’t mentioned it.”  The silence came after that and they packed up lunch early.

            Doctor Procter lead them to the edge of a cliff and said they had to climb down.  Lockhart had everyone spread out along the ledge to look for an easier way down.  He was certain someone would get hurt in the climb.  Boston thought to go back the way they had come and circle around.  Sure enough, she found an easy way to the bottom.

            “Hey!”  She hollered back up to the top.

            “Where the Hell did you go?”  Lockhart yelled back.  “We thought you were hurt somewhere or who knows what?”  He was being very parental, worried about a child.  He was happy to see her safe but quick to scold.

            Boston explained how to get down and Lockhart took a good look at Doctor Procter.  The half-elf looked disappointed.  Lockhart said nothing.

            After that, Doctor Procter lead them to a stream, swollen by the rain to a small river.  It rushed down the mountainside.  It was not so wide or deep, but it was rapid and the rocks looked wet and slick.  Lockhart could only imagine a twisted ankle if not a broken leg.      

            Everyone spread out again to look for a better way across.  Roland followed Boston’s lead this time and went beyond the allotted time and distance.  They found where the river turned one hundred and eighty degrees and saw they could continue on their path down the mountain without having to cross the water at all.  When they reported back, Roland spoke innocently.

            “If we had crossed the stream here we would have had to cross it again a few thousand yards down the mountain.”  This time Lockhart disguised nothing in his stare at Doctor Procter.  The doctor spoke amiably.

            “I was only following the direction on the amulet.  It doesn’t have a setting to help us avoid obstacles.”  All the same, Lockhart caught the sense of cursing that came to Doctor Procter’s lips.  It was beginning to look to Lockhart that the good doctor wanted them injured for some reason, or worse.

            It was an hour later, about three hours before sundown, as if they would recognize sundown when it came, when the whole atmosphere around them turned from dark and gloomy to seriously oppressive.  They were all jumpy by then and hearing noises and catching things from the corners of their vision.  Nothing happened, though, until something fluttered up and said “Hi.”  Decker’s gun went off and the fluttering thing vanished.

            “Wait.  Fairy.  Miss fairy.”  Boston called out.  “We won’t harm you.”  She whipped around on Captain Decker and let lose her anger.  “If you harmed her you will pay for it.”  The look on Captain Decker’s face said he was sorry, that he could not help it, but the words were beyond him.  Another half-hour down the path and they heard the words before they saw a thing.

            “Hello.  Is it safe?  Xiang sent me to fetch you, but I don’t want more bang-bang scary noises.  It is scary enough as it is.”

            Several voices answered, but Boston’s voice carried above the others.  “It’s safe, miss fairy.  No one will hurt you.  My name is Boston.”  The fairy flew up to Boston’s face and hovered for a moment to examine the girl.

            “My name is Blossom,” she said before she fluttered up to examine the others.  She gave the elder elf a bow, smiled for Roland, did not appear to even acknowledge Doctor Procter and returned to Boston again at the end.

            “You can sit on my shoulder while we walk if you like,” Boston suggested.

            Blossom wrinkled her nose.  “You have done this before,” she said.

            “Twice,” Boston admitted, and the fairy settled down for a visit.  With that, they had good guidance and everyone felt their spirits lift a little in the presence of the fairy except perhaps Doctor Procter who slipped to the rear to walk beside Captain Decker.  The captain was feeling guilty about firing at the poor fairy.  He did not know that the chances of hitting a fairy were astronomically slim even for a marksman.

            It was yet another half-hour before they came upon four men in a clearing.  One of the men looked up.  “Ah, there you are,” he said before he turned to one of the others.  “Go tell the people to hurry up.  This is a good place for the night and now that my friends have arrived, we can start making camp.”  While two of the men trotted off, the travelers simply stared at this familiar face before Alexis got it.

            “Keng?”

            Captain Decker looked at Alexis with great curiosity.  “He can’t still be alive, can he?”

Once upon a time I was considering National Novel Writer’s Month as an option.  I had a great idea for a young adult novel, a great rationale for the fantasy foundation, the location selected and even a few names to develop.  It was early September, and I felt I had plenty of time to work on my characters and draw up the storyline, but then I made a mistake.

I talked about the idea with my sons, 15 and 18. 

September 17^th after work I sat down to begin outlining or shaping “The Chosen.”  I started Writing instead.

            “So, what’s his name?”  Emily was curious, but not really interested.

            “Thomas.”  Jessica looked back at the library table where the young man looked up and waved.  She smiled. 

            “And he is in Freshman English?”  Emily picked her book-bag up from the ground for the tenth time and tried once again to make the strap stay on her chair.  The thought crossed her mind that one definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome.

            “No,”  Jessica sat up but made no effort to open her book.  “He’s a Sophomore, and on the football team.”

            Emily looked up briefly.  Apparently Jessica went for football players.  “I thought you had a boyfriend at home.”

            “But I’m not at home,” Jessica said with a straight, albeit blond face.  “Besides, I want to enjoy the full college experience.”  She tossed her hair back and snuck another look at Thomas.

            Emily nodded and ran a hand through her short, black locks.  It was a boy’s cut left over from ROTC summer camp.  If she did not have a Mohawk red streak she figured her hair would have no character at all.  “But it has only been five days,” she said, and she thought living a whole year with this roommate was not going to be easy.

            Jessica looked at her long French nails before she slammed her hand down on her book.  “First day of classes and we already have homework.  It’s unnatural.”

            Emily looked at the girl’s hand on the book and thought at least that was something.  Then she examined her own short, black painted nails and shook her head, sadly.  “I’m going back,” she said and picked her book-bag up from the floor.  She slid her English book into the bag and stood, and Jessica mirrored her but with a glance to be sure Thomas watched her leave.  Emily noticed and spoke quietly, “grumble, grumble.”  She was not sure how to put her feelings into words, exactly.

25 days later (October 11) I reached 50,000 words.  12 days later (for a total of 37 days for those of you who may be math challenged) I was done at 79,000 words.  I suspect next spring when I edit and tighten it, “The Young and the Strong” may end up closer to 75,000 words, but that was on October 23^rd.  So now what do I do?

            The library door closed quietly behind them with the sound of a shush.  The university campus spread out before them like a gray world punctuated by lamps here and there along the paths.  Emily looked up once, but there were no stars to be seen because of the library glare.  Perhaps she was a foolish freshman to walk across campus in the dark, but she had Jessica for company, such as it was, and the dorm was not far.  She knew Trenton was not the safest city in America, but Jersey State University had a great safety reputation, as far as she knew.

            “Coffee?”  Jessica made the suggestion while she tugged on her too short skirt.  Emily put her hand in the pocket of her black slacks, found the two dollars she needed for laundry and shook her head.

            “I need to rest.”  She honestly felt it was important to keep herself on a good schedule, at least at first.

            “Well, I can use some,” Jessica insisted.

            Emily hesitated before she spoke.  “Can’t.  I’ll see you back at the room.”

            Jessica also looked ready to say something, but declined.  She turned without a word and headed toward the student center.  Emily watched for a moment, then turned to her path.  She took two whole steps before she heard a stifled scream come from Jessica’s direction.  She did not hesitate.  She ran toward the sound.

Hopefully one day you will be able to read the whole book for yourselves.

Good luck to all who are participating.

–Michael