"Umm..." I mumble, not breaking eye contact with my friend for one moment.

“Steph?” Kayla repeats, obviously stunned by my unexpected action.

I’m innocent; it’s all BarbieLee’s fault! I blame her, she forced me, she twisted my arm. Well, not really but she dangled a twisted idea in front of my nose so of course I just had to grab it and add a twist or two. There was no way I could avoid it, could I? You believe me, don’t you?

Friday evening. I hear the door open and my son enter.

”DAD! It’s getting cold so I need warmer tights now. Could we get some tomorrow?” he shouts before quickly going upstairs. He is always quick to get out of his school uniform blazer and skirt. He keeps complaining about the skirt every day. I sympathize with him but he really has himself to blame. No matter, he’s a good boy, or so I thought until yesterday!

She's Leaving Home

Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her handkerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free

The air is cool. There are muted traffic sounds coming from the main road half a mile away. A few Blackbirds are signing.

Joe and several family members watch Jessie and Mary as they slept in ICU. The specialist managed to remove the second bullet from Jessie’s spine, but felt that she was going to be crippled for the rest of her life, the first bullet damaged the nerves that allowed her to control her legs. Joe felt helpless watching his wife and their niece. Maggie had gone home with his sister. Joe had stayed to watch over Mary And Jessie.

Having completed her operation in England, Charlotte and Will return to their island in the South Pacific. There is a rush to familiarise themselves with the progress made in their absence, make new friends and renew old acquaintances.
Whilst Charlotte is doing this, she makes her first of a chain of discoveries, a hoard of laundered currency and packages of uncut heroin!
Then a trip to the scientific laboratories on the south side of Charlotte Island leads to the second discovery; over twelve thousand miles away from where they should be, evidence of an early settlement is discovered with Anglo Celtic Iron Age roundhouses, altar stones and jewellery dating back to a time before the first Roman invasion of Britain!
Shortly after this and whilst on her honeymoon with Will, Charlotte finds a letter written by the settlers who built their original house and two or three days later a hidden casket with more connections to the past!
But there are other discoveries to come. Is there a touch of magic involved? Charlotte becomes suspicious that this might be connected to her meeting in Berkshire with Penelopeia, ancient wife of Odysseus, the Greek hero of Troy and are the water sprite Undine and Goddess Artemis figments of her imagination, the early signs of a mental breakdown or visitors from another dimension?
Perhaps it is a reaction to the events of the past eight months, shipwrecked, marooned, her sexuality confused? Then a battle for her life on the high seas and the biggest shock of all; discovering that all her life she had been intersexed, a male and female sharing the same brain and body and all of this followed by the recent string of astonishing discoveries. Is that too much to ask of a person with XXY chromosomes?

Stories in the Jackie Hallard Universe:

Hugh met Jackie, formerly Jack, a con man, while on an undercover assignment in Fort Worth. She now helps him solve crimes. Follow their continuing adventures in this series.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

These two chapters represents the end of part 1: Winter Solstice. Part 2 Spring Fling follows and it is still up in the air whether this book is a two-parter or if it is in three parts. It all depends on how much trouble our hellion gets into and wiggles out from under. Speaking of which I have jumped back and forth in the timeline and Ashleigh has edited 49 more pages but I've written 7 pages in between that is not yet edited. She hasn't been feeling well and I may post them unedited revising that chapter when she is doing better. An editor is worth her or his weight in gold especially in my case when I don't all the time know what Atalanta will do next. Or when. So Ashleigh if you're reading this thank you again.

I added an additional image that I hope illustrates a point. Let me know if you like an occasional image ot if this one helped or hurt.

We find out what plan Atalanta has or indeed if she has a plan at all and instead is making it up on the fly. Harvard puts in an appearance after all why not it is an institute of higher learning but he is a very special bird and he can...no that would be telling! I hope you enjoy.