Summer vacation had been ongoing for a week and I was already bored. The thrifty lifestyle I'd been living for the last eight months meant that my purse was bursting at the seams. The old wooden treasure chest was overflowing with coins and bills, you see I'd yet gone ahead and opened a checking account with our local bank as my best friend Madeline and older sister Lily had been strongly suggesting for the last few months.

Idol

Idol - 1986- Age 17

A couple in their forties went in the machine just as we got in line, and they came out again a few minutes later; the woman was younger and prettier, wearing a much more expensive-looking outfit, a dark blue dress that Meredith said looked like silk. The man was a wolf or wolfhound; the woman put a collar and leash on him and led him out toward the parking lot, probably to avoid trouble with the mall cops, police and animal control until they got home.

Olly

“Olivia?” the teacher inquired. “Oliver,” I corrected him. “Damn! Another one,” the teacher muttered.

Buffalo, New York
March 2007

Chapter 9

At the shop I found that my bolt ends had been delivered so I stored them in the ‘special’ room. Everything seemed to be ticking over nicely and I chatted with everyone for a while until Roberta commented, “You’re happy today. I would think that you may have got a good seeing to last night. Was it Jim or have you found another stud?”

I laughed. “About as far from a stud as it’s possible to get but I was satisfied and so was she.”

“Dorothy was a child, and she missed her home. Her Aunty Em. I left home when I was 21, and I don’t think I’ll ever go back even to visit. It’s not home anymore. And I’ll be honest: I’ve always thought Dorothy was an idiot for going back.”

She cocked an eyebrow in question and I said, “Have you been to Kansas?”