Chapter 27

Louise got on her phone to Etienne to get him to call the place we had been to lunch yesterday because he knew the owner. Then she told him that we needed lunch for the Stable Sisters plus four and she smiled as she put her phone away.

“He’s shocked,” she said. “He said that the music shop will pay for lunch as long as we stroll around the corner for some pictures there.”

Janet laughed. “Edie, we let you come early and when we arrive you have helpers, transport, and now free lunches. What else did you organize?”

It is a warm morning as I run through the desert. The sky is orange as the sun starts to rise over the horizon. The terrain was rough, scattered red step like escarpments disrupting the plains. Cacti and rocks scattered across the plains.

I was running out to my favorite rock tower, which is not popular among the tourist sites. I can visit without worrying about seeing another human. I do not know why this rock structure has such interest to me. It is not particularly special, but I feel drawn to this location.

CHAPTER SIX

Day 149? - the next day.

I leapt out of bed and peered out of the window, trying to see who was in the garden. But though I could still hear them, they were out of sight. I called down, but neither Ash nor Drew answered. I grabbed my robe and ran down the stairs into the hall. Chris was waiting for me when I got there.
“What’s going on Chris? Did I hear a man’s voice outside?”
“We need to talk, Sue. Come.” She took my arm and led me off into the dining room.

Feathers

by Erisian

It had been a bad fight that night almost a year ago, the worst we'd ever had. The wings had appeared on our backs that morning - everyone got them, and it hadn't taken long for the significance of the colors to be understood.

If you had been morally good, your wings were white. If bad, they were stained with black. News video of prisons demonstrated that sharply: almost all inmates and too many of the guards had wings smeared and splotched as if with black tar. Most people had a blend of white and grey - some of the patterns were actually rather pretty. You could even glide with them if they were big enough and you were in moderately good shape, and children started figuring out how to actually fly - though there seemed to be an upper limit to how high up they could get. About ten feet or so seemed to be the limit. Physicists and biologists were utterly baffled, of course. Chemists were having a field day in tremendous excitement analyzing the composition of the feathers - but that's another story.

This is about us. Me and my wife. My wings were no better nor worse than most folks; though I could see a few splotches of darker grey mixed in. My wife, Sarah, hers were brighter than mine - except for a couple feathers that appeared rather splattered with black ink.

When Phillip had got home and explained to his wife what had just happened. She had just rolled her eyes and carried on getting ready for a girls dinner she had planned. Phillip had a brief conversation with his agency and they simply repeated what Stephan had outlined at the meeting. Phillip had spent his time over the next few days mentally preparing himself for just how silly he would look presenting Loose Women, and Ruth’s teleshopping shows on QVQ as a presenter who was used to being on much larger shows.