A Chapter where Queen Aiofe gets to meet her longlost sister Tara in joyful reunion and the friends finally have to say their goodbyes as some go north through the Prypet Marshes and others return to North Africa.

This was the more sedate style of bundling adopted by puritans after Elizabethan times. The earlier bundling traditions included playing tricks on the newly weds in addition to allowing intimacy without intercourse before deciding on marriage.

Bridges 22

Chapter 22

I’m still holding Cass there in the dining room. My arms around her and my hands still on her belly and her hands over mine. I know that I froze for a minute but things kind of start back up as my mind started to process everything.

“Sam…”

She sounds scared. “Yeah.”

“Say something.”

It’s not even something I had to think about. I tighten my grip around her until I’m hugging her tightly and pressed into her back. I move my hands over her belly rubbing where our baby is growing. Cass shivers a bit in my grip and there’s a sniffle coming out of her and I bury my face into her neck and her hair and nuzzle her ear.

“I Love You.”

Just before she went to bed, Steffi called me into her bedroom and showed me the uploaded photos. I chose a busy restaurant photo that showed our stunning hostess, and a group photo that had her prominently featured as well. I hugged her and told her how very proud I am.
God, I absolutely love that girl!

The Beneficiary, by Karin Bishop

Selected entries from the Journal of Donna Everton

Part 9

Some treasures are hard to find, and harder to hold onto.

Some treasures are hard to find, and harder to hold onto.

Some treasures are hard to find, and harder to hold onto.

Steffi declared in a clear voice, ‘I want to become a girl indistinguishable from any other, naturally-born girl. I want to live everyday for the rest of my life as a female with no reminder or thought of being male. And I want to die an old, happy woman.’
‘Then let’s make it happen,’ Dr. Hastert said calmly.

The Beneficiary, by Karin Bishop

Selected entries from the Journal of Donna Everton

Part 8

I dont wanna do this anymore ...

This one is based on "Unfaithful" by Rihanna, which can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp4UwPZfRis&ob=av2e

This one has some strong themes, read with caution

In a haunted, desolate valley a lone man and his dog venture back to civilization to return with an ancient map that will lead them on a journey to a far off land.

Encrypted-7

Chapter 7

It might sound strange but being a bartender is actually very good if you’re like me. I have issues with clean. I need things to be clean and this I can control here behind the bar. You take away the social interaction it’s a whole system of measurements and protocols and technical details that are actually soothing to someone like me. Oddly enough I like the dance music too the beat of the club stuff get’s into what I’m doing like a way for me to time myself. Plus there’s the fact that I just like to dance. I’ve studied both dance and music as my minors and while it’s part of me being different I kind of found that dance and music let me feel like I actually sort of had a soul.

There were a lot of years that I wondered that. I mean I still wonder what a soul is but I’ve managed to get myself to a point where there were times I though I could feel like other people did, like they had one.

"Should you even go to the mall, Juice?" asked Jenn.

"Why not?"

"Well, you're, like, puking your guts out, huh?" said Shabeez.

Justin waved a hand. "I'm all better now. It doesn't last that long."

Carmine cracked up and everyone looked at her. "Maybe," she wheezed between laughs, "maybe it is morning sickness?"