For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
I looked at poor Kristina, then realized that my left eye was still closed. I could see out of my right eye, though it was only partially open. I felt my face, then I looked at Kristina again. I had to check and see if she was still alive. Yes, she is breathing, but not easily, and her heart is beating quite normally. I was angry. I do not really care what they do to me, but what they did to Kristina…they had no reason to do this.
But who are they? I do not remember anyone, except the people who came to us in the cave. But I did not see them, I only heard what they said, and that was not much. I do not remember anything else. But how is that possible? I looked around. The landscape looked familiar, much like it did where we lived. Kristina was waking up now.
I asked her how she felt. She was in terrible pain and was having a hard time breathing. “We will find the people who did this Kristina,” I said as a promise to her, “can you walk?” I helped her get up and we began walking in a northwest direction. I am not really sure why, it is just a hunch. We soon came to the edge of our hill. There was a stream below, running between the two hills.
On the other hill, quite a distance away I saw a house. It must be quite large that I can see it from here. Poor Kristina, she can barely see out of her eyes, I am leading her along. Fortunately it is a nice grassy area along here. But going downhill and crossing that little stream was not easy. We were scratched up going through the bushes along the stream.
Once on top of the hill I could see where we were. That was our chateau in the distance! We rested for a while, then kept going until Kristina collapsed. We were close, so I walked over to the fence and set off the alarm. The girls came running out of the chateau, along with the cats. They were horrified at what they saw.
Sigurbjorn called Chung for the ambulances and he and Mriya were at our side quickly. Though for us it seemed like it took hours. We are now in my room at the clinic, it was better to keep us together for safety. Baldwin sent a security team to guard the clinic. Our team guarded the inside though. Chung told me that Kristina and I had bruises over our entire bodies, and we were swollen so badly it was hard to recognize us.
We tried to describe that beautiful scent to Chung, but it was hard, neither of us had smelled it before. Chung thought the scent was just there to make us breathe in more deeply and that it was some kind of gas to knock us out. But I could tell he was not telling us everything. He was worried about something.
I asked him what was wrong, but he just said not to worry about it right now, he only had suspicions right now anyway. Perhaps he is worried that gas might send me back to “nowhere” again. Baldwin cancelled the remainder of his business trip, even though it was important. He felt it was more important to be here at this time. Chung did not allow any visitors for us, not even Jenny or Baldwin, for 3 days.
Sigurbjorn had a recipe from her grandmother for making a homemade salve to treat our bruises. Chung had most of the ingredients and the rest the team was able to find locally. It really did help a lot. Finally Jennifer and Baldwin were allowed to visit us, but only for a short time. Chung was worried we had been drugged and beaten to get information from us.
But what information? And why do we not remember anything. Mriya told us they might have hypnotized us so we would not remember anything, or it could just be some drug which would do the same thing. They had learned nothing from Toledo, so I said to Baldwin to let him go, but track him. That is what he did. Two days later his body was found in a Paris hotel.
Lavina might have thought he talked since we let him go. I was hoping he would lead us to her. It does show that Lavina was keeping track of him, so perhaps she is not too far away. Kristina and I had not gone far either, we were only gone for exactly 24 hours.
The team searched the area where we had been dropped off but found nothing, except evidence that a helicopter had landed there. Is this part of the warning mystery? Or is it something new? For some reason I do not believe that Lavina is behind this…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Good morning to all of you on this beautiful autumn Tuesday! The sun is shining brightly, and the sky is a brilliant blue. There are still beautiful colors in the surrounding landscape, but it is patchy with most trees having lost their leaves. Yet some trees still retain green leaves, and some are just turning a bright yellow, such as the aspens.
Not enough now to get nice landscape photos however, so this is the second year in a row that I missed the opportunity. Although I did get some nice pics last year but had to travel further from town to get them. It looks like today will be our last really nice fall day. Yesterday was sunny and nice, with a temperature of 57F (14C). Yes, that is a nice temperature for us this time of the year.

Today will be very nice with a temperature forecasted to reach 70F (21C), although we may not quite reach that. Yesterday was less than the forecasted high as well. Tomorrow, well, it will be colder, then colder again. That begins the late fall temperatures. The birds are busy this morning, more and more juncos have come along now.
Even a fox sparrow has shown up and I am showing a picture of that one today. I do not get to see them very often in the fall, they are most visible in the spring as they travel through heading north. They head south a little faster and usually only stop here for maybe a day or two. Juncos are different though, and there are several dozens of them around now. And they will often stay until the winter snow arrives.

I made a new feeder yesterday for the new feeder pole which I will be putting up once winter arrives. I would prefer to put it up now while it is warmer, but the bear just might tear it down like she did with the old one. I do not want to do this twice, so I will wait. Today I hope to get the second pole made and put up.
That one will just be a pole, with arms on it for holding hanging feeders and suet feeders this winter. None will be on it now, so the bear will hopefully leave it alone. Hopefully. I would like to have one of the poles in place before the cold weather. It is not fun doing work outdoors when it is cold. And it can get very cold, very suddenly once winter arrives.

A bear was around last night again, but I do not think it was the mama bear. It was alone anyway. Poor Muffin gets so scared when the bear comes onto the deck. I do not mind if they come at night. During the day is a different matter though. Well, thank you so much for stopping by to visit with us today. Have a great day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.