For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The reason I messed up Amber’s hair, which led to a tickle fight, was to stop her from saying anything more about the team. I gave in quickly, but while we lay on the bed I whispered to her not to say anything else. She understood. ”Now you owe me big time Steve,” said Amber, “since I won the tickle fight.” ”Hmm, I guess you did win,” I said, “that’s how we do things Adoncia.”
“You guys are crazy,” she replied. Then she went silent and put her head down. ”Hey, what’s wrong?” asked Amber. She looked up with tears, “what is going to happen to me now?” Amber looked at me. ”You will come home with us,” I said smiling. ”You have enough room for me?” she asked. ”We have 30 bedrooms,” I said, “so I think we can squeeze you in.”
Her eyes got real wide. ”For real? Like, 30 bedrooms?” she asked. ”Yep,” said Amber, “and all of the other girls live with us too.” ”The guys have their own place,” I explained, “except for me of course, and one other guy who is married to one of the girls.” ”Wow, are you like, some big millionaire or something?” asked Adoncia.
“No, it is actually owned by a friend of mine,” I said, “but he does not need the place, so he lets us use it free. He built himself a new house where he could relax better, rather than living with us like he was doing at first. He just wanted a smaller place too.”
Then she started crying suddenly and said she kept getting recurring thoughts and dreams about what happened. When she told me what it was about I walked out of the room. ”Where is Sky?” I asked Kat. ”In Crystal’s room,” she answered. I went down there and opened the door, since I have a key to all the rooms. ”Do you not believe in knocking?” asked Sky.
“Not during the day,” I said, “Amber needs help with Adoncia, a nice sensitive woman like you. Plus Snow and Ginger.” The cats showed up right away so I picked them up for Sky. ”Do you know what those nice people did to Adoncia?” I asked the girls. I then told them and Sky was ready to explode, but I told her she needed to be calm right now, which I know will not be easy for her.
I then sat down, shaking a bit. Crystal and Catalina came over to help me. After I calmed down I called Annelie and asked if she could get a message to Georgia, from Aari. She said that one of her contacts was in the next city and knew one of Georgia’s “messengers”. I told her what to say.
Meanwhile, “What are you doing here Louis?” she asked. ”I got a message here from that Rockwood guy,” he said. She read it. ”He wants to make a deal,” she said, “he will give us back all our stuff if we buy Amber’s house for $400,000, plus give him the names of the men that killed her parents and her sister. Then they will leave.”
“Sounds like a good deal,” said Phil, “that stuff is worth more than $25 million.” ”I do not like it,” said Robert, Georgia’s husband, “they just might stay anyway.” ”And if we do not agree they will take us down,” said Georgia, “which would you prefer? At least this way we have a chance. They will just take the money from the money they found and giving them the killers is no big deal, they were just hired hit men anyway.”
She then sent a return message with her messenger, agreeing to the deal. She even called one of the killers back to the city to hand him over to us in person. The next morning I was sitting on a park bench near a children’s playground, waiting for whoever was sent to meet me. I was wearing a blue armband to identify me. Sky did not really like me going alone, neither did Amber.
Aari was totally against the idea, but I was firm this time. Soon a car pulled up, the driver got out and opened the back door. A woman in her 30’s got out and sat beside me. I had the papers for the sale of the house and she signed both copies. Then she gave me pictures of the men who killed Amber’s sister, plus their addresses, they both lived in town.
Then she handed me a picture, which was one of the two men that killed Amber’s parents. ”This is…” she began. ”Malcolm Colman,” I finished for her. ”You know him?” she asked. ”I know about him,” I said, “we will find him.” ”Then she handed me another picture of the other man. ”This is…” she began again. ”Reggie Wasters, also know as Craig Masters,” I said, “where is he?”
She gave me the hotel name where she told him to stay until she contacted him, and his room number. We both got up to leave. ”All this for a couple of stupid drug pushers,” she said. I gave her a hard backhanded slap with my left hand, knocking her back onto the bench.
Her driver went for his gun, but mine was out first. ”Go right ahead, pull your gun,” I said, “I would like to have a good reason to kill you right now since I do not know your connection to this.” He pulled back from his gun and dropped it. ”As for you,” I said, pointing my gun at Georgia, “I should just kill you now anyway considering what you did to Amber’s family…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Good morning everyone! It is another one of those gray, cloudy days, but mild again. The temperatures lately have been amazing for December, very mild for us. The one concerning thing is the lack of snow. We do have a little snow, perhaps about 2 inches (5cm) or so, but it will be above freezing again today so more of it might melt.
I remember one year that was similar to this one, there was only a couple inches of snow that December, with some areas, especially hillsides, having no snow at all. Krissy was off school for the Christmas break and wanted to go on a winter hike. Well, it was kind of a winter hike, just without the snow, but it was somewhat cold at -4F (-20C).

So, we dressed warm and off we went, after letting her mom know where we would be going. Something I was not usually good at doing, letting people know where I was going when I was by myself. We drove to a particular spot and down a small unused road as far as I could drive. Then we began our hike. That road suddenly ended at, well, nowhere. It just stopped.
A lot of this little old roads were like that. We were close to a lake though, so we went down a sloped area to the shore. Like all the lakes that year, it had frozen so smooth and clear and what little snow we had, had blown off the lake. We slid around the shoreline for a while having fun on the ice. The ice was good and solid since we did have some colder weather recently and with no snow that ice got thick quickly.

Then Krissy got the idea to cross the lake to an area with some large pine trees where there was no snow. ”A great spot to have our lunch,” she said. I agreed, and I did have my axe with me, plus some rope. I cut a couple long poles for us to use as well, just in case we suddenly fell through the ice.
I went first and checked the ice with my axe regularly to make sure it was still solid. Then I stopped at one spot and hit the ice. My axe went through and I did not even hit the ice hard. That ice was not even half an inch thick. I stood up and that is when we heard a lot of cracking. I told Krissy to backtrack quickly, which she did.

I tossed my backpack back as far as possible to reduce my weight. Then I took a step back and the ice gave way under me! Well, I do not want this to get too long today, I know everyone is busy this time of year. I will have part 2 ready for tomorrow afternoon. Have a great weekend everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.