For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Hi everyone! Happy Friday as well! It is another cool, cloudy, windy and somewhat rainy, fall day here once again. Oh, did I mention it’s also rather cool? Well, it is. Again. It is presently just 45F (7C), which is cool even for us, this early in the month.
However, this isn’t about the weather, it’s about photos, and this is another of my favorites, a mother white-tailed deer and her baby on someone’s lawn.

White-Tailed Deer, doe and fawn.
Deer are such a common sight here in our town that many people don’t even pay attention to them anymore. Tourists still get excited about seeing them, and people like me. Have a great weekend everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
While we were going back and forth looking for Misty and Cristy, something was happening inside the prison. “You can’t lock us up like this,” said Misty, “we are citizens of the UK and have done nothing wrong. We demand you let us go!” The rather large woman and two even larger guards, just laughed at the twins. “You are now citizens of our prison,” said the woman, and she laughed again.
She then locked the door and the three of them left. “Hmm, that didn’t go very well,” said Cristy, “it usually works in movies.” “Maybe they don’t watch movies,” said Misty. “So, what do we do now?” asked Cristy. “Um, not sure,” said Misty, “but being locked up like this is driving me crazy.” “Yep, me too,” said Cristy, “now that we have that out of the way, what’s next?”
“Um, not sure,” said Misty, “I wonder when they serve dinner in this hotel?” “Are you two finished talking yet?” asked Sky. “YES!” they both said together, “now you can take us all out of here.” “Yes, that is the idea,” she said, “that’s why I came along, just in case something like this happened.” “You’ve been with us the whole time?” asked Misty.
“Yes, Steve thought that maybe something would happen,” said Sky, “so he had me come along, but invisible, so I could rescue you easily.” “Good,” said Cristy, “Visty is just down the hall, that way.” “I’m not taking Visty out,” said Sky, “just you two. Don’t you remember? I can only take two with me.” “Then leave me and take Visty,” said Misty, “then you can come back for me.” “That would be against the rules,” said Sky, “but I will come back for Visty after taking you two out of here.”
“Oh, that’s okay then,” said Cristy, “this will be an easy case.” “Except they blew up out jet,” said Sky, “so we have no way out of the city, except to drive. That will be dangerous.” “Um, won’t these people be able to hear us talking?” asked Misty. “No, I have us in a bubble,” said Sky, “so no one can hear us, and they can’t see me, only you two. Now, get ready beside me. First I burn out their cameras on this floor, they are all likely on the same circuit, and it will take them a long time to fix. That will help us.”
Sky then shot a lightning ball at the nearest camera, and sure enough, it burned out the whole lot of them in that section. “Now, I unlock the door,” said Sky, “so they will think you escaped the normal way. That will make them look bad. Now, we go.” And they were gone just as 4 guards came running down the hall to the cell where they had put the twins. But, it was too late, the twins were gone.
The guards pressed the emergency button, but nothing happened. It must have been connected to the same wiring as the cameras, so it was burned out too. Next, they phoned it in to the main office and soon more guards arrived and there was a general lockdown in the whole prison. “Who locked up those two women anyway?” asked the woman in charge. “It was the one everyone calls Lady Enzo, mother,” said Carlos. “Get her in here, and I mean now!” yelled mother.
Soon Lady Enzo appeared in mother’s office and a lot of yelling took place. Soon Lady Enzo was locked up in a cell with another woman. “Keep her in that cell for a week,” said mother, “that should teach her to be more careful in future.” Her three sons laughed, knowing what cell she had been put into, with a woman that Lady Enzo hated, and the other lady hated her too. I imagine that is going to be a rather interesting week for the two of them.
“Are those other people still here looking for those two women?” asked mother. “No,” said Marco, “they left already.” “That’s because those two women were outside already,” said Julian, “we saw them leave on our video surveillance.” “And none of you tried to stop them?” asked mother. “We didn’t know you wanted them stopped,” answered Julian, “besides, it’s probably better they got them back. We already know they have some influence with Fernandez and we don’t want to start any serious trouble with Ramon away right now.”
“Yes, you may have a point there,” said mother, “cancel the lockdown and say it was just a drill.” While this was going on I had told Sky to go back and get Visty, but they had already taken her somewhere else, and not knowing where she was, Sky was unable to get her. So, we decided to leave and try for plan B. I didn’t really think that plan A would work, it was too easy, and nothing is ever easy for us.
Back at the hotel we went over the hand drawn floor plan we have for that prison. “That place is huge,” I said, “she could be anywhere.” “No, not really,” said Jazzy, “this section is for men, and this section is the women’s prison. This area here is the solitary confinement area and is likely where they put Visty since it is the most secure area.” “That means it will be the hardest area to reach for a rescue,” I said. “Yes, unfortunately that is true,” said Jazzy.
That afternoon we began going to the stores where the three friends had been shopping, to see if we could speak to any of the employees about whether those three had actually been in their store that afternoon, when the murder was supposed to have happened. In hindsight, this might not have been the best idea. In one small shop, the young woman working there was quite nervous when Emerald and Tracy began talking to her about that day.
She told them she gave her testimony at the trial and she didn’t want to say any more. “But wouldn’t you like to help an innocent woman?” asked Emerald. “Look, I have friends I live with,” she said nervously, “I do not want them hurt.” Then her boss showed up and the young woman became more bold and told the girls to leave her alone, she had given her testimony at the trial and that was all. The owner then asked the girls to leave his shop, so they did.
After he closed for the night, he offered to drive his employee home, just in case those women were waiting for her. She said that would be nice, and they left shortly after. But, her boss took her to a different place, saying he was just taking a different route in case they had been followed. However, 4 motorcycles soon overtook them and her boss stopped his car. The motorcycle men told the young woman to get out, so she did.
Then her boss drove away. But not too far away, the boss was surrounded by more motorcycles so he stopped again. He was ordered out of his car and one of the masked men beat him for leaving his employee behind. Meanwhile, back with the employee. “You should not be talking to strangers about the trial,” said one of the men, “now you will be severely punished.”
But, just then, more motorcycles surrounded the men and the first group pulled out guns, a fatal mistake. They were soon lying on the ground, dead. Then a woman got off one of the motorcycles. “Come with us,” she said, “we will take you to my husband’s sister and she will keep you safe. Otherwise more men will come after you and will likely kill you.
Please trust us, we want to help you. Here, you ride with my husband.” The woman smiled and got on and the whole group were soon gone from the area…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.