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  Kenneth Lawson
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July 11th, 2021

7/11/2021

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​The stone figures appeared overnight, looming over the farmland like sentinels. The farmer whose field the figures appeared in sent word to the nearest village that someone invaded his land. Word of the appearance of the stone figures spread quickly, and villagers from the surrounding countryside arrived to see the statues. 

Afraid, the elders of the villagers vowed to stay with the statures deeming them gods. Eza Clayman, an inspector with the Galactic Security Force, materialized along the edge of a field, watching the scene unfold. 

He waited. Predictably, the natives settled down for the night, and Clayman made his way to the statues of being careful not to wake anyone. It would be difficult to explain what he was doing here and harder yet to explain to the people that someone stole the statues they  now worshiped from a nearby planet. As a non-technological person, the Primary Protectorate Act prevented contact.

He inspected the stone artifacts and confirmed that they were the lost statues stolen from Allma. He contacted his ship to send a cargo carrier to begin loading the figures. As the tractor beam latched onto the last statue, an elder woke up and, seeing Clayman began to scream. His translator quickly interpreted what the native said. He had called him a god. That was unfortunate. 

 He attempted to calm the native down. But it only made him angry. He pulled his photon pistol set to stun and was about to quiet the elder when he heard a voice behind him. It was Lakeman, his green-skinned quarry. The elder fainted at the sight of the new creature who had materialized out of nowhere. Clayman pulled a small device from his belt and fired a restraining field around Lakeman.

His antennae waving wildly, Lakeman laughed. “You are good Clayman, not sure how you tracked me, but you got here before I could get back for my loot. They were too heavy for the little cruiser. Had to get a bigger ship.” 

“By now, my crew already has your ship in a tractor beam. You are not going anywhere.”

 “You got me, but you just violated the protectorate agreement. They’ve seen the statues and you. If you disappear without correcting this, you alter their timeline. You’re stuck here. You can’t leave.”

Clayman glanced at the last statute and sighed. As much as he hated it, Linkman was right. If he’d only been a little faster getting them and not awakened the elder, he’d be back on his ship with the one criminal he wanted more than any. As it was, he now stuck on this god-forsaken planet with an ugly stature only the people who built it could love.

He spoke into this com and told his crew to leave the last statue and transport Lakeman onboard. Then asked them to report his transgression to the High Command.

As Lakeman disappeared, he turned to look toward the gathered elders, now on their knees before him. Great, going to be a long wait before the First Contact team arrived and got him out of this mess. A very long wait.

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July 04th, 2021

7/4/2021

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​​Ray fled to his favorite coastal village to hide, but he won’t escape from me this time. He’d gotten away, but a little bird named Rita whispered in my ear and told me where I might find him.

And find him, I would. The coastal village was home to a long line of nefarious characters, and Ray was only the latest.

I head for the café that Carlos owned. While he ran a respectable cafe in the front, what went on in the back rooms was less than upstanding. I found Carlos sitting behind his favorite table in the far corner of the room. 

 I slid my revolver from its holster as I sat down across from him. He barely nodded at my arrival. “Ray and Laura ?”  

I ignored the shot of whiskey that appeared in front of me. I was an old regular, and the bartender knew my poison of choice. 

“Haven’t seen them in months.” Carlos was very good at looking innocent. He looked at my revolver now pointed at him. “You plan on using that?”

“Only if you’re stupid.”

Carlos grinned from ear to ear. “Then I shall attempt not to be stupid.” 

“Rita.” I prompted.

“Haven’t seen her in ages either.”

I knew better but didn’t question him. “What was your cut of the bank job?”

His eyes widened as he tried to look surprised. “My cut?”

“We both know very little goes on around here, without you knowing about it or having a cut of it.” I took a drink of whiskey.

“That was an unfortunate incident, which I had nothing to do with.” 

“Ray killed a guard and a bystander, and Laura was seen there too.”   

Carlos sipped his whisky. “So was another man, I hear.”

“Red is dead.”  I let it lay there as I also sipped my whiskey.

His eyebrows raised. “He tried to outdraw a leveled gun?”

“One too many times.” We both knew of Red’s obsession with his draw and speed. He was fast and pretty good, but it was known not to try to draw on a leveled gun. Red had managed to do it a couple of times, but he’d been lucky, and the other guy missed or misfired. “He’d thought he could do it against a shotgun.” 

 “Ray?” I reminded Carlos.

Carlos leaned back in his chair and shrugged. A movement from the curtain in the door behind him caught my attention.

“You looking for me?”  Ray appeared out of the back room, and my hand went to the revolver on the table. Ray grinned as Laura came out to stand next to him.

“Yeah, I’m looking for both of you.”

“Figured Rita would let you know where we came to hide.”

“That she did. Did you think you could escape me?”

“Nah, wasn’t trying to escape you. Just trying to hide from the honest lawmen.”

“What makes you think I’m not honest?”

Ray laughed. “Because you’re the one who shot the guard, not me.”

I moved my hand back from my revolver. “That was me, wasn’t it?”

Ray nodded and sat across from me. “You want your cut?”

“Why, yes, I do.”

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June 27th, 2021

6/27/2021

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 I knew which path would take me home, but did I want to go back? 

The sound of movement in the underbrush near me decided for me. Pulling up on the reins of my horse, I steered him towards the path as his ears pricked and twitched. He heard the same sound as I had. Patting his mane, I settled him down and reached for my shotgun. Sliding the double-barrel gun from its scabbard, I lay it across my lap and eased the hammers back on both barrels. The old side-by-side shotgun had gotten me out of many scrapes over the years.

Branches broke again—only closer now. I felt her tense up at the approaching sounds. “Easy girl,” I whispered.

Red Bell appeared from the shadows along the path. He was just as ugly as I remembered him. Sitting atop a blue Roan, he wore a worn hat pulled down low over his eyes. His jacket was torn and frayed at the edges. 

“Evening, Red.” I  greeted him quietly. 

Startled, he turned to look over his shoulder. Spotting me, he spun the horse in the path to face me.

“I swore I’d kill you if I ever saw you again.” 

He swallowed hard, looking at my shotgun. At this range, both barrels would take him off his horse and probably hit the horse too. Red backed his horse up a pace or two.

 I shifted in my saddle, my shotgun never moving.

“Yeah, you could.”  A toothy yellow grin appeared under his bushy black mustache. Red continued, “But then you’d never find her.” Red relaxed. He knew how his words affected me.

 “Laura?”

Red nodded yes as his old hat flopped with the sudden movement. “And Ray.” 

“Rita said they were on the coast in  San Jose.” 

“You believed her?”

“Not entirely, but on this, I think she’s telling the truth.”

 “So?” Red drew out the question.

 “You know where Ray and Laura are?”

His head bobbed up and down again. “And you want to come with me.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t? Without me, Carlos will shoot you on sight.”

“Carlos knows better than to try. He’d be dead before he cleared leather. You, on the other hand, are under arrest for murder and the robbery of the bank in San Jose.” I showed my badge with my free hand.

“You’re legal, eh?” 

 My turn to nod yes. 

“What If I don’t come quietly?” His horse shifted around on the path. My shotgun followed him.

 The sound of my shotgun echoed through the woods. Red fell from his horse,  gun in his hand. He knew better than to try to beat a leveled gun, but he tried anyway. 

I settled my horse down and headed down the path that led to the coast. Going home wasn’t an option now.
 
 



 


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June 20th, 2021

6/20/2021

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I returned to Trinity College to correct a wrong from thirty years before. The head of the Alumni Association, Lauren Myers, had signed the invitation to the reunion. Figures. She believed the best revenge was succeeding epically and then rubbing everyone’s face in it. I reread the letter, tempted to throw it into the trash, but I decided to go. It was the perfect time. 

Lauren Myers stood at the reception desk when I signed in. I forced a smile and shook her hand as I pinned my name badge on my sports coat. “I wasn’t sure you’d come, Wayne.” She exclaimed too politely.

“I wouldn’t miss this for all the world.’ I lied. 

I signed in and picked up my small leather carry bag. I hadn’t planned on staying the entire three-day weekend.

 In my room, I pulled out the file tucked into my case. I had spent the past thirty years wondering what to do with them. Although my instinct was to throw it away when I received the invitation, I realized this was my opportunity to do what I had to do.

The invitation said the opening reception would be at six o’clock. I had time to take a nap and lay on the hotel bed. Sleep came quickly, but not sound sleep. The young, beautiful, ambitious version of Lauren that I knew in college appeared in my dreams. The version I’d met a few minutes ago remained quite beautiful. Our last meeting together had haunted my dreams for the past thirty years.

“Lauren, You can’t do that.”

“Who’s going to stop me? You?”   We had snuck into the university president’s office, and she had several grade documents she’d doctored, replacing the grade sheets in their files. 

“Don’t do this. They won’t graduate this year if you change their last semester grades.”

“So, they have to take classes over. They ruined my life. Besides, these three are borderline failing anyway.”

“Come On. They only teased you a little.” I told her.

 “A Little?”  She retorted, “They made me the campus joke—no one would give me the time of day. Professors wouldn’t even help me after class, and no one would date me or talk to me. They made my life hell!! Now I’m making their life hell.”  She went through the files and replaced the folders with hers, keeping the originals. I stood by and watched her helplessly. 

At six o’clock I entered the reception. The three men in question were there because I made certain they came. I took a breath and got the crowd’s attention.

“I am Wayne Carmichael, as you know, but what you don’t know is why Roberts, Lee, and Crandell failed and had to repeat the semester when they were supposed to  graduate.”

“President Long, here are the original grade sheets for these three.” I looked at Lauren, who was white as a ghost. “Lauren Myers made fake grade sheets and slipped them into their files, removing the correct grade sheet. I was there when she planted them. I tried to stop her at the time. I should have stopped her or told them, but I was too scared. Now I can set the record straight.”  

I handed the grade sheets to President Long and walked out of the room. Right is better than wrong.
 
 


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June 13th, 2021

6/13/2021

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Thunder rumbled as we approached the ruins. Standing just down the path, I sighed as I looked around. The spring rains had been generous this year. The sun glaring off the green grass almost blinded me. 

 The distant thunder grew louder, and the ground shook under my feet, wind from behind driving the clouds in our direction. “Looks like another Thunder-banger,” I spoke aloud, not caring if my two companions responded and pushed through the weeds surrounding the old castle. They followed me without speaking, as neither had much to say on the best of days. We reached the outer walls of the ruins just as the cold light rain began to fall. 

We ducked inside a crevice between abutments and caught our breath as the winds shifted, pushing the hard rain deeper into the crannies surrounding the walls. Spotting a low round window nearby, we dashed for just as thunder clapped, shaking the ground under us. As I leaped through the window, lightning flashed over the horizon. We moved farther into the room to escape the winds and rain blowing into the old ruins.

Lew and Dan weren’t originally part of the deal. The original plan had been for me to slip in and out alone and find the artifact. The surrounding kingdoms were at war over control of the regions and valuable resources. 

My king sent me on a covert mission, but when word leaked out about the prophecy,  various factions sent mercenaries to follow me and steal the artifact from me if I had found it. That made bodyguards necessary.

The castle’s location was never precise, and I pulled the old map from my pouch, carefully unfolding the fragile paper to check the landmarks. I had to be in the right place—the castle of King Wilfred. Though now in ruins, it had the unusual spherical towers and odd-shaped outer walls described in the ancient texts. Locating the map in an abandoned library was pure luck, but that luck may have paid off. 

While Lew and Dan watched for mercenaries, I carefully searched the walls of the storm-darkened room, looking for the secret opening. I was nearly back to where I started when I felt the edge of a doorway. Pressing along the seam, a portion of the wall opened, revealing a narrow passageway with stairs leading down into darkness. Telling my guards to keep an eye out, I took Lew’s torch and disappeared into the depths of the castle. 

It took a while, wandering the labyrinth of passageways, but I found the object of my quest. A rumored jewel-encrusted gold bird statue that legend told gave ultimate power to the ruler who possessed it. I reached for my pouch. I had work to do. 

When I returned, Lew and Dan looked wide-eyed at the statue I carried. Lew sputtered. “What is that?”

“This will give our King his power.”

As we slipped out of the castle, I tucked my pouch inside my shirt. It held the real jewels taken from the stature. I replace the real ones with colored glass, and the king would never know. 

I should have answered Lew with the truth. “The stuff that dreams are made of.”

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June 06th, 2021

6/6/2021

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​They were strangers, drawn together on the shore by a force they didn’t understand. Jason Rogers searched the faces of the dozen or so other people with him but knew none of them, and they didn’t recognize each other. A woman standing next to him asked him where they were. He didn’t have a clue. All he knew was that the early morning sun broke on the horizon as they stood in knee-deep waves on a beach. 

A beach that wasn’t acting like any beach he’d ever visited. The sand was rolling under their feet as if it were alive. A man a few feet from him yelped as he stumbled on the moving stand. Panic set in, and the entire group rushed out of the surf only to find the sand, warm even in the weak dawn light, was moving as well.

“Hurry.” A woman waved frantically to them. “There’s a solid ground up here. Looks like a parking lot or something.” 

Jason hurried to join them, noticing the seagrass on the dune looked blue, not green as it should. What the hell, where were they? 

Once on what looked and felt like asphalt but was squishing, the group began talking. Jason was shocked, they were from various places in the United States, and the last thing any of them remembered was going to bed. No one remembered how they got to the beach. 

A man named Arlo from Brooklyn pointed to the sky, “Oh my god, there’s another sun coming up.” 

Jason’s heart began to race. He was supposed to be in class this morning, not here. His parents would be frantic. He searched the area around them, but there was nothing but flat land and strange vegetation. There was nowhere to go for help.

The strangers stood huddled together, frightened, for about twenty minutes, watching the twin suns rise in the sky. Jason was about to look for help when the ground beneath them began to vibrate. They ran in unison back onto the beach as a whining sound of a revved engine blasted their ears.

A large silver object, Jason thought the metal tube looked like a train car, winked into sight. No one moved, transfixed on the tube. When a door slid open, revealing a brightly lit chamber, they moved further away. 

A man with thick white hair and a huge forehead stepped onto the solid ground. “Greetings, my fellow travelers. I trust you have enjoyed the twin sunrise here on the most beautiful beach in the universe. It’s time to embark on the next segment of your adventure. Our next port of call is the planet Lorea where you will have breakfast under the planet’s glittery diamond rings. You will find a wide variety of delights to keep you amused, and this will be your first chance to shop. Please have your credentials ready as you board the transport.” 

Credentials? They looked at each other, stunned. Jason felt something in his jeans pocket and pulled out a crystal disk that flashed ‘admit one.’ Not knowing what else to do, he got on the transport, and the others followed him.

As the beach winked out, stars replaced the view from the transport window. Jason scoffed. This was either one hell of a dream or one hell of an adventure.

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May 30th, 2021

5/30/2021

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​Finnian Payne turned seventeen on the Winter Solstice, and his life changed forever. Through the centuries, the Winter Solstice had become occasions whereby the child officially became an adult in the eyes of the community. 

For centuries in villages of the valley, the tradition was that a child became an adult in their seventeenth Winter Solstice year. His birthday had landed on the exact date of the winter Solstice that year, making his passage even more special. 

The majority of the region’s population was well past working in the fields or doing manual labor, leaving most of the work to the few still able-bodied citizens. The Winter Solstice ceremony brought more of the population old enough to do the adult work.

The ceremony was grand and lasted well into the night. The children of the surrounding villages had gathered together with their families to honor their passing into adulthood. Finnian had attended many ceremonies in the past, but this was different. There seems to be a sense of urgency about the whole thing. 

While never saying anything, the elders seemed eager to end the ceremony quicker than in the past. Many had reached their seventeenth-year milestones, more so than in the past, and the abrupt ceremony was a surprise. 

The following morning, the elders informed the newly “ recognized” adults what the hurry was the day before.

“Finnian, you have proved yourself to be an able leader, dependable, and our best hunter. That is not to say that any of the others are less able or dependable but, there must be a new leader. The council had decided  that you are to lead this group into battle tomorrow morning.”

The small group stood in stunned silence. The elder continued. “There have been no new adults in several years. The elders and the council have been preparing you for this day. We are aging and need young, hearty men to fight.” He paused. “What the village doesn’t know is that we have been under threat of attack for a long time. Tomorrow, you must defend the village and our way of life.” The elder paused to let them think for several minutes.

Finnian spoke up first. “What or who are we fighting?”
Before the elder could answer, the sky darkened, and the light shining through the windows dimmed to as though twilight had fallen. The elders exchanged glances, and the chief elder pointed out the window. “Them.” 

Finnian and the others turned to look out the window. Outside on the edge of town was an army of soldiers on horseback, led by the legendary  General Akitia, a warlord from a distant empire. The young men had not thought to be a threat to this region. Finnian now realized the talk of the village’s resources and their value he had heard over the years was real. 

He turned to his peers, and Finnian realized the years of sword fighting, hunting, and tracking they endured was for a reason. He took a breath and addressed his men. 

“We have an enemy to fight, and we are ready.”

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May 23rd, 2021

5/23/2021

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​The garden was tranquil, but she realized harmony was a momentary matter. Within a few minutes, the reality would return. The sounds of planes and gunfire were deafening, but it was the sounds of drying soldiers that cut to the bone.

 She’d volunteered to be a nurse early in the war. Within a month of beginning to serve,  she had held severed hands and looked deep into a young boy’s guts and not blinked. How much blood had she washed from her hair? Far too much, but nothing ripped her heard up as sounds of the dying soldiers. The garden became her sanctuary where she came after another one died. The sounds of the pond and the smell of fresh flowers, and even the buzz of flies, were peaceful. She could compose herself and remembered there was life beyond the blood, guts, and dying.

Today had been horrible.

Three young men and a female driver of an ambulance were involved in a rollover accident. They managed to save one young boy but lost the others. She cried, the drone of a bee nearby and the plop of a frog in the pond her only companions. 

She sensed someone in the garden and whipped her head around. 

 “You okay?” Her commanding officer stood before her. 

She stood and faced her CO. “No… yes, I’m fine.”

“Linda, I know. You did the best you could.”

Linda straightened her apron and pulled herself together.

 “Thank you, sir. I’ll get back to work now.” She saluted as she walked past him.

 The war in the east against the Japanese had been fierce and devastating. It seemed the only space that either side avoided was the small gardens and resting places dotted through the country. A fire could destroy the land and buildings surrounding the gardens, but the gardens were sacred. It was in these small patches of nature that she kept her soul together. 

She retired from the Army Nursing Corps, a colonel, and taught nursing for the army and other medical schools. Now, fifty years later, each night, she came to sit in her small Japanese garden at her home in California.

Through the large glass door behind her, her service medals and awards in the war hung on the wall. But she took little comfort from the medals, as she tried to forget all the men she couldn’t save.

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May 16th, 2021

5/16/2021

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​The boy waited patiently on the path, knowing they would have to return home eventually. The army had blocked the main road, including the main gate, which was the only other way into the estate. Most of the locals knew about the old service path to the estate but rarely used by anyone. They feared the army would find out about the back gate and path but not locate the tunnel as Lord Stanley was essential to their cause. 

He had a message to deliver to the Lord, but when he arrived, he’d found the gate ajar. He decided to backtrack out of sight and wait.

He leaned on his bike and remembered the day the invading army had come through the town. The soldiers destroyed or damaged the town’s buildings and rounded up anyone who remotely looked as if they could be a threat. Some died at the hands of the soldiers, with the rest held hostage until the region’s elders agreed to surrender the town to them. A few citizens held out, waging a guerilla war from the hills.

Several wealthy landowners were either killed or captured and placed under House arrest, and the army used the estates as headquarters with armed guards patrolling the grounds. The army chose Lord Stanley’s estate as their main headquarters because of its location on the side of a hill facing the ocean. They hadn’t counted on the estate having tunnels from the second great war and the back gates hidden from the main grounds, behind a wall of evergreen trees and brush that made passage difficult. However, a tunnel that from the back gate to the house. For several weeks they had been sneaking out one at a time to get messages and supplies. So far, the soldiers had not caught them, but it was risky. 

Lord Stanley had the tunnels cleared out and made plans that were underway. The risk the soldiers would discover someone missing from the house or caught at the entrance to the tunnel or in the hidden basement area was always present, but they ignored the risk and prepared to fight the enemy.

After a long wait, Lord Stanley showed up and stopped short when he saw him leaning against the bike.

‘Michael? Is everything ok?

“I have a message for you from the resistance. The army suspects you and others are part of the resistance, and tomorrow planes come from over the mountains. They are planning to bomb the estate. Hide in the tunnels by six a.m. The resistance will come for you when the bombing stops.” The boy jumped on his bicycle and rode down the path,  leaving Lord Stanley saying a prayer to himself as he slipped in the gate and down the tunnel.

By six the following morning, Lord Stanley huddled in the tunnel with his family and a few servants as the ground shook and bombs and artillery destroyed his family home. But they were alive, and Lord Stanley and the others would carry on for as long as it took. 

They would defeat their enemy, and freedom would be theirs again.

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May 09th, 2021

5/9/2021

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NOTE: This week the ​limit was upped to 500 words

​My family had lived on this land for a hundred years before my grandparents disappeared without a trace. My parents had come home to find them gone. The pot was still on the stove. Dishes on the table. Grandpas’ newspaper and a shot glass of bourbon on the side table. Grandma’s knitting in the bag beside her chair. clothes piled in the hamper, ready for the washer. They left in mid-living and never seen or heard from again. 

Decades later, I was back at the old homestead looking for answers. Police and family members searched and cleared out the house long ago. All that remained was a rotted decaying shell of a house. The old car still sat in the yard near what had once been a driveway. I tugged on a door handle, and the car door creaked as it open, but as I expected, I found nothing inside.

The rickety front door opened easily, and I stepped inside. Memories of  Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners with tables all over the house and the smell of chicken and turkey and warm bread oozing through the house flooded my thoughts. Images of children playing. I shuddered and was back in the shabby room. Glass from broken windowpanes lay scattered about the floor, boards loose, the house dangerous to walk through. 

Only dust greeted me as I walked into the kitchen. I poked around and opening an upper cabinet, and shiny, beady, little eyes greeted me. A mouse, startled by the sudden light and scurried through a small hole in the corner of the cabinet. 


I almost ignored the hole, but it was too neat for a mouse to gnaw through. There was no electrical box near the cabinet. So why the hole?

I found an old newspaper and wiped away the dust and mouse droppings in the cabinet. Standing On the one remaining chair that looked solid, I reached into the cabinet and felt the hole with my finger. A drill bit had made it. I hooked my finger over the wood and gently pulled. It moved. The panel pulled away, and I found a metal box between the studs. 

 I took the box and headed outside into the sunshine. Resting the box on the hood of the old car, I pried the box open. There were papers inside, their papers, and I began to understand their lives. 

The papers inside revealed a story no one told my family. In the early years of their marriage, my grandparents witnessed a murder. The police kept their involvement out of the papers and provided them with protection until the day word came that the people responsible for the murder had learned their identity. The police placed my grandparents into protective custody without a word to their family, hoping to keep everyone safe. 
I placed the papers back in the box—time to go home and tell the family that their grandparents left to save them all.

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    500 Words
      The idea is to write a short story  about 500 max short based on a picture and an opening line.  
    ​From there one can go ANYWHERE..
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    Please note: the images used are free-use images and do not require attribution.

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