A Fleeting Childhood, Part 4
Present

2:30 P.M. local, Monday, May 9, 2017
Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

(Eleven days after Sagitta Luminis,
Cosmos Secundum ad Madoka)

Fiona's fingers degenerated into a jumble of notes before her playing halted and Yuma jumped in her seat in surprise. "Who…who said anything about the fate of the world?" Fiona's voice tripped as she reacted to Noriko's question.

"It's okay, Yuma," the voice in her head assured her. The strange creature remained around her shoulders, apparently sleeping if not for his telepathy. "Just keep your wish ready…" Yuma still had no idea what she might wish for, so she just scooted closer to her new protector and hoped for the best.

"You did," the old woman across from the redhead answered nonchalantly. "To your confessor, just before you flew to Japan." Noriko's own playing became hesitant with the loss of her partner.

"What did you do to Father Marshall!" Yuma watched Fiona's eyes narrow as the redhead glared across the broad expanse of black wood between them. " You're Catholic, too. Would you dare break the confessional?" Yuma looked nervously back toward the old woman to see how she'd respond to such accusation. The gravity between the two women was beyond anything she'd ever experienced, even between her oft fighting parents.

Noriko stopped playing too as she looked up, smiling like a cat who snuck into the cream at gaining the upper hand with her mentor. "Oh calm down, Fiona. I did nothing of the sort, although someday you might want to have words with your priest over the matter of his questionable discretion." Noriko pulled out an oversized blue and white envelope and waved it side to side hear her head. "Your dear Father Marshall sent you a package, care of me. I chose to examine it and it contained the most fascinating letter."

Fiona groaned. "What did he say?" she asked, wilting and looking defeated. Yuma let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Oh, I'll let you have it so you can read it yourself. It's actually more interesting for what it doesn't say then what it says. The world changed two days before you flew out here. The fate of billions are at stake and you fly straightaway to Mitakihara, where currently resides a magical girl who just happens to be my brother's granddaughter. So remind me again how this isn't my affair?" If her smirk and raised eyebrow was any indication, Noriko was enjoying herself.

Yuma noticed Kyubey had perked up his head at the recent change in the conversation. Up until now the little white creature seemed content to laze around her neck and simply relay or answer questions between occasional urging to wish. He now appeared quite interested in what was being said.

Fiona seemed to have taken notice of Kyubey's interest, and she was grimacing. "Will you please trust me to handle it, Noriko? I have a plan."

"In general when you 'handle' magical girl affairs it ends in slaughters. Forgive me if I lack a certain amount of trust, Fiona-sensei."

"Once again, 1968 is on your shoulders not mine," Fiona defended. "I tried to stop you, and you wouldn't listen."

"What about World War Two? Or the Conclave of Chicago? Kyubey pulls your strings, Fiona. He has ever since your daughters died. What is his plan here?"

Fiona's grimace deepened as she turned briefly to look toward Yuma, her green eyes focused on the alien around the little girl's neck. "Kyubey and I have a détente right now," she explained as she turned again to face Noriko. "His interests and mine are aligned so I'm acting on my own. That said, he warned me against coming here and it appears he was right. Excuse me for having wasted your time."

Yuma felt Fiona rise next to her, and so she stood up to join her mentor and savior. Although she hadn't spoken for a while, Jayashri still stood between them and the door.

"I can keep you from leaving, you know." Noriko had also risen and was now making her way around the pianos. Her movement was confident, suggesting little of her advanced age.

"You could," Fiona admitted, "but to what purpose? Homura and Kirika are already magical girls. Their fate is sealed. You can't turn back the clock on a contract."

"Perhaps," the petite woman nodded before continuing with a shrug, "but I could recall Homura back to the estate. My grandniece needs training and who better than Jayashri to provide it? She's the oldest and most experienced living magical girl, and has served me since India. Other than the Seattle Four, she's the most powerful magical girl on Earth. Linda and Jessica are in Chicago and Noriko and Birgit are in exile on South Georgia. Jayashri is conveniently right here."

Fiona shook her head immediately. "Jayashri herself doesn't think removing Homura from her friends is a good idea. Her intuition has kept you both alive all these years. Are you going to ignore it now?"

"Get out of my head, damn you!" Jayashri cuffed Fiona on the back of the head in displeasure. It appeared little more than a tap for the assassin, but Fiona was knocked to the floor by the blow. Yuma jumped to kneel beside her guardian on the ground, remembering the importance of staying beside the redheaded woman's side while also leaving generous distance between herself and the violent puella magi. Never before, not even during the worst beatings at home, had she looked death so closely in the face.

Yuma helped Fiona sit up, and the woman rubbed the back of her head as she looked up at her assailant. "I'm right, though, aren't I? Aren't I?"

"Yes, in this case you are," came the resentful admission after a long moment of silence. Despite her considerable strength, the Indian magical girl deflated as she turned to look uncomfortably at her mistress. "Homura is not a normal magical girl, Noriko. She's powerful and…unstable. Dangerously so. Her two young teachers may be all that stands between her and disappearing, and in the process wreaking havoc to her surroundings."

Noriko didn't look happy at what she was hearing. She advanced on the taller but downcast mage, using her hand to raise the girl's chin so that they were looking into each other's eyes. "And you were going to share all this with me when, Jayashri? You know better than to keep secrets from me." The silver haired woman's voice was menacing and carried steel.

"My daughter…says the same thing." A man's voice spoke, hesitant at first, for the first time since they had entered the room. Yuma turned to see Hikaru and Hitomi make their way to stand beside Jayashri, the older of the two men putting a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "Nobuko-chan doesn't know about magical girls, but I think she held a soul gem during my granddaughter's latest treatment on Thursday. I wasn't sure until now that you're confirming she's contracted, but the way she described it I can't imagine it being anything else. She says Sakura-san and Tomoe-san are good influences and she feels better with Homura alone in Mitakihara knowing those two are watching after her."

"Ganging up with her against me again, Hikaru-chan? This time not only with Fiona but with Jayashri as well. Three against one?" The eldest Noriko smile reminded Yuma if a cat she'd once seen terrorizing a stunned bird who could no longer fly away. She was downright predatory.

"I'm sorry, oneesan," Hikaru answered his sister without flinching. "But she was right then and she's right now. We should help her and then send her on her way with our blessing."

Noriko smile faded and she looked thoughtfully at her brother before turning to gaze at Fiona, her expression neutral. "I'm not going to apologize for dumping you in the void. It was the right choice and I'd do it again."

"And I'm not going to apologize for refusing to choose sides between the East and West. That said…if I had been able to choose I would have chosen you."

"I know, Fiona," she sighed, "but in the end, I suppose it's for the best you didn't. The price was horrific, but we did form the refuge on South Georgia Island."

"You did right by the girls there, Noriko-chan," the redhead soothed as she moved to embrace her aged student. After a few quiet moments, Fiona leaned back to look down into Noriko's eyes. "I hope you know how proud I am of you for forging that compromise between both sides and Kyubey. Not even I could have ever pulled it off since I'm too deeply involved. It took a simple human to think of it."

"It means a lot to hear you say that, sensei," the old woman admitted with a suddenly tired smile. "I'm still not sure if I like what you're up to, but I won't stand in Hikaru's way as he helps you…for now. That said…" She turned her face toward her assassin, "Jayashi, I hold you personally responsible for monitoring my grandniece's progress. She's the first Konno mage in over half a century and I'd like to see her last a while longer than my sister did."

A Fleeting Childhood, Part 4
Past

2 pm local, Sunday, December 12, 1941
New York, NY, USA

(Seventy-six years before Sagitta Luminis,
Cosmos Secundum ad Madoka)

"Come in!"

Shimako and Noriko were busy working on more of Noriko's cranes. After the unsettling events of Thursday night, the younger girl had been inspired to take her project more seriously. With just a little guidance, the count of cranes made by the five year old now topped five hundred. Other than the renewed excitement, Noriko seemed unaffected by the new strangeness. Perhaps she'd concluded the more unreal events of that night had been a dream. Shimako was happy to leave it at that.

She swiveled her head toward the door as her mother opened it and stood nervously in the open space. "Honey, there's a woman downstairs who wishes to speak with us all together. The Army people let her in saying she was here to take you to your new school."

What…?

Shimako's whole family had been going through the motions since Thursday, trying to forget that with Monday would come the dissolution of their family. Shimako knew to expect something before that happened, her undeniable existence as a magical girl giving her confidence that their salvation would arrive in time. Still, she had no idea in what manner that salvation would arrive. She certainly hadn't expected to be hauled away to some strange place before rescue arrived.

With the knowledge that no one could take her away against her will anymore, and ready to be surly if she needed to be, Shimako rose and smoothed the light cotton dress she was wearing despite the cold winter rain and wind raging outside. She coaxed the suddenly anxious Noriko up and took the little girl's hand before moving to face their mother.

She couldn't come out and say why she felt so calm, but she still tried to be reassuring. "I'm sure this is just a preliminary discussion before things happen tomorrow, mother. I can't imagine they intend to take me away on the Lord's Day, especially in such inhospitable travel weather."

Shimako's mother's hands, which had been fidgeting with her pink apron, moved instead to smooth the garment she was wearing as she prepared what might be their last meal as a family, perhaps ever.

The woman smiled, although it was strained. "I'm sure you're right, honey. She seemed a nice enough sort. She's amazingly smart, too. She greeted me at the door in French, and now your father and she are going on about chemistry in German. I can't follow them, but he's almost forgotten what she represents. I suppose if she's reflective of the school you're going to, then perhaps this might be a good thing."

She didn't sound convinced. And anyway, no matter how good the school was, Shimako had no intention of going anywhere Noriko didn't come too.

As the three women descended the staircase, Shimako got a good view of their guest and her eyes widened.

She's stunning!

That really was the only word Shimako could come up with to describe the red-headed woman sitting relaxed in the chair beside her father. Her legs were crossed as she leaned forward slightly to listen as the eldest Konno spoke animatedly about the latest public theory of atomic structure. The woman nodded at her father's words and asked a question that was far beyond Shimako's understanding despite her fluency in the language they were using. Her father understood, though, and dove into yet another discourse. His hands flew in the air as he used them to help describe whatever it was he was babbling about.

As Shimako rounded the base of the stairs to enter the living room, she was shocked to see the European woman turn her head briefly and wink…yes wink…with emerald green eyes before turning her attention back to her father who hadn't even noticed the interruption in his audience's attention.

Who…is this woman?

Head full of questions, Shimako dropped herself into her favorite spot on the couch and encouraged Noriko to cuddle right up alongside her. Her mother looked ready to plop down as well when the tell-tale sign of a waking baby drifted down the stairs. Before the senior Konno woman could excuse herself, though, their guest gently interrupted the father to address her mother – again in her mother's beloved French.

Now that she heard the new woman speak, Shimako detected a certain archaic-ness to her phrasing, like she was speaking the language as it was spoken hundreds of years ago. It was intelligible, of course, but a little odd. A little bit like someone speaking Elizabethan English.

"Mrs Konno, please feel free to bring your son down to join us. I gave birth to two daughters myself, so a little fussing and feeding won't faze me I promise." To hear the language of romance spoken in such a manner flustered her mother.

It occurred to Shimako to wonder how the woman knew the crying baby upstairs was a boy.

If this woman had been male, Shimako had little doubt her mother would be putty in that man's hands despite her being happily married. She had a soft spot for linguists. "Um…yes. I'll go get Hikaru and bring him down right away." She seemed reluctant to leave the woman's presence even as the fussing upstairs became full-fledged crying.

"I'm not going anywhere in this rain, Mrs Konno," the redhead assured, an amused expression on her face as she turned her lilting soprano to chiding the older Japanese woman in the manner of a mother herself. "I'm sure the let-down must be drenching you right now, dear. Go get your son and feed the poor boy before you wet the floor!"

Shimako had never seen her mother so scattered, but the woman managed to nod and hurry up the stairs. Their guest then turned back and motioned for her father to continue. It was another ten minutes before the man finally wound down, by which time her mother was back on the couch with a baby boy latched onto her exposed left breast. If Shimako didn't know better she'd swear her mother was blushing despite the only male present, other than the infant on her lap, being her husband of two decades.

Silence descended in the room as her father got up to retrieve another cigar from the box on the mantle. He had his hand in the wooden case when their guest spoke again into the quiet, this time in English. "Are those Cuban?"

"Um, why yes, they are," the man answered uncertainly. "I have a colleague in the anthropology department who has a house outside Havana where he has locals cultivate his own leaves."

"That wouldn't be Paul Farnsworth, would it?" she said with a dazzling smile.

"Yes," he answered, surprised, "yes it would."

The redhead chuckled. "I haven't had one of Paul's specials in twenty years. He and his wife and my husband and I used to stay down at his place during the holidays to get away from the dreadful weather up here. Those were some good times."

"Twenty years?" her mother spoke, incredulous. "Miss Ainsworth, were you a teenaged bride?"

The woman's chuckle was now a laugh. "No Mrs Konno, not quite. I'm…just a smidge…older than I look. Hitori," the woman, Miss Ainsworth, motioned back at her father, "if you wouldn't mind sharing one of those, I think it's time I did the talking and there's nothing like a good cigar to help move along hard conversation. Except perhaps a good cognac?"

"Miss Ainsworth?" her father seemed confused by the woman's easy manner, very unlike the proper woman she appeared by dress, grooming, and title.

"You may regret here in a bit if you don't break out the booze. I have a lot to share and then we all have some difficult choices to make. Seriously, at least set out a bottle and some glasses so you have them ready. And don't forget my cigar!"

Somehow their guest had managed to take over the household, and Shimako could just watch as her parents did as the woman gently directed. The woman had an aura about her, making it so easy to do what she wanted. It was almost magical.

What a minute…

It is magical!

There was no doubt about it now that she knew to look for it. She followed the senses she'd gained from her inner light and, although this woman was certainly no magical girl, she was somehow still carrying magic about her. And not a little bit either. In fact…

Wait, that's my magic!

"Miss Ainsworth, are you alright?" Shimako's mother was perplexed at why their guest had burst out giggling. Shimako was even more perplexed as the woman's green eyes met her brown ones and she nodded with wiggling eyebrows.

While Kyubey had explained to her that telepathy with humans was possible, so far she'd only managed it with Noriko. Sarah had assured her that some things came more easily for each girl, and some things didn't. Shimako seemed to have traded away easy mind magic for proficiency in stealth – really not a bad trade off given her needs. That said, she'd already learned how to 'think privately', and even Sarah and Kyubey wouldn't have been able to hear her thoughts now. But this woman…

You can hear me, can't you? Again, she kept the thought buried where nothing should have been able to sense it.

Again a nod, and an ever wider smile barely visible past the free hand she'd placed over her mouth to keep from spraying in her laughter.

"I'm sorry, Shimako," she managed after gaining control of her levity. A few puffs from her cigar later and she added, "You must forgive me. It's been decades since I've played this game with a new Puella Magi and I'd forgotten how much fun it could be."

"Um, Miss Ainsworth? You're not making any sense!" Despite what could only be described as her mother's crush on the new woman, and the baby at her breast, the concern for her daughter rose to the fore as she tried to determine just what was happening between this stranger and her oldest daughter.

Miss Ainsworth's expression calmed and she lowered her hand. She still was smiling, but it was more serious now. "Shimako, transform for us please. It's the fastest way to get to the point of the discussion."

"Um…" Shimako had been told by the wish granter that non-magical girls were best kept in the dark about magical girl affairs. To know was to be placed in danger. "But Kyubey said…"

"Kyubey says a lot of things," the redhead responded to the thought as her eyes darkened. She took a puff of her cigar before explaining further. "In this case, I'd normally say he's right. But if we're going to spirit your family away from Manhattan tonight, they'll need to know the whole truth. There's no way we can hide it from them, so let's just skip all the explanations and show them. If you don't, I will," she continued, letting slip some impatience, "but that would involve a lot of gore and would likely give Noriko nightmares for weeks."

"Don't hurt my sister!" Shimako sat up straight and turned her body so she was between Noriko and the strange woman.

"Oh, I wasn't talking about her," she assured while gesturing at the child with her cigar. "I was talking about me! All that magic you've seen wrapped around me."

"Oh," Shimako said as she relaxed just a little. She only then could see her father had stood up as if trying to determine what the man of the house should be doing when confronted by a potentially dangerous mad woman.

Shimako sighed. "Oh, why not," she breathed out. "Noriko, go over and stay close to mother, okay?"

Noriko looked thoughtful as she realized something. "This is about Thursday night, isn't it? That wasn't a dream, was it?"

"No, pipqueak, it wasn't. You're about to see me do some more magic, so go help keep mama calm, okay?"

"Magic?" her mother squeaked as Noriko shifted over and took her shaking hand.

Rather than try to explain, Shimako stood and shifted to her ninja clothes. Her father's jaw dropped and his cigar slipped from his fingers onto the floor. Miss Ainsworth leaned down to snatch the smoldering object and took a puff of the classic Cuban. She now had a cigar in each hand.

"So Shimako," the perplexing woman instructed, "go ahead and phase through me to finish making the point."

Shimako shrugged and obliged as she negated the resistance of their visitor and the chair she was sitting in. She then continued on to the liquor cabinet to grab the bottle her father had said was meant only for really special occasions. She transformed back to regular clothes before retrieving four glasses and returning to the others. Her father had dropped nerveless into his chair, and she suspected her mother was hyperventilating but Noriko seemed to have things under control.

She opened the bottle of amber liquid and poured four glasses, handing the first to her father and the next to her mother. Neither of her parents said a word as they took the proffered vessels and drank long sips. She then offered the third to their guest.

The woman smiled graciously as she reached over to the stunned father to return his cigar before accepted the glass from Shimako. She took a much smaller sip before raising the glass up to the teenager. Feeling like it was a rite of passage, the newest magical girl in New York took the forth glass and knocked it gently against her guest's before taking her first sip of liquor in her short life.

"So you can hear my thoughts like Kyubey, but you can't broadcast?"

"I can hear a lot more than Kyubey, but we'll talk about that later, Shimako. We'll have plenty of time once we get past White Plains. You have a lot to learn, and the first thing I'll teach you is telepathy."

"Teach me? But you're not a magical girl." She paused a moment before speaking the next obvious question. "What exactly are you?"

The woman smirked. "I'm Gertrude, honey."

As if that explained everything.

"You're as bad as Kyubey," she groused and took another sip of cognac. The liquid burned as it went down and she already felt a little floaty.

"After 350 years, the rat does rub off," was Gertrude's impossible reply.

Somehow the outrageous number brought her mother back to reality and she made a connection. "Your archaic French…"

"I learned to speak French at the court of my father when I was a little girl in Scotland about three hundred and fifty years ago, Mrs Konno."

"What…what did you do to my daughter?" The words were forlorn and Shimako felt compelled to go comfort her mother, but stopped when the woman who had given her birth shrank back and pulled Noriko away as well.

"Believe me or not, I didn't do anything, Mrs Konno. Your daughter is actually the reason why I am here. You shouldn't be surprised. You gave her the paper to fold."

"The cranes?" The question was incredulous.

The redhead nodded. "The cranes and the strength of her desire were what made it possible given she otherwise had rather weak potential. Not to go into too much detail, but the cranes ordered your daughter's magical potential allowing her to make one rather modest wish come true. That wish was to rescue her family.

"I was drawn by the wish and will do all I can, along with your daughter and her new friend, to spirit you to safety for the duration of the war at my house in Syracuse. It's far too big for me alone. I don't ever entertain since my husband died and the handful of servants I keep are discreet. You'll be safe until I can get you home. And in the meantime, we'll continue Noriko's schooling and I'll try to teach Shimako what she'll need in order to survive as a mage. It's a dangerous life, but she should be okay if she stays open minded."

"Dangerous?" This time it was her father who managed to gather his wits enough to ask a question. Shimako noted the man's glass was empty so she moved to refill it. Unlike her mother, her father looked at her more with curiosity and didn't shy away. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't rejecting her either. It was the look he had when engaging a new problem that he was determined to understand.

Gertrude took another puff of her cigar followed by another sip of cognac. "Dangerous is putting it mildly, actually. Shimako agreed to combat demons that prey on humans in return for her wish and her powers."

"Demons!" Mrs Konno exclaimed. Shimako cringed thinking just what her mother must be imagining.

"They're not agents of the Lord of Lies," the American clarified, "but they cause madness and suffering just like the real thing. I prefer the term wraith simply because it skips the biblical connotations, but demon is perhaps a clearer image. Their food is human despair, and they consume us if they aren't kept in check by magical girls."

"I've never heard of such things," Mr Konno said, dubiously. "How would no one know about such creatures?"

"The same way no one knows about mages, Hitori-san, and you saw what your daughter is now capable of with your own eyes. Mages and demons exist at the edges of human awareness, out of sight, in the darkness. And just to clarify, magical girls aren't dark…at least not any more than humans- they just live where there are wraiths to fight."

"You said 'us' to include yourself," her father continued to reason, "but differentiated humans from mages. You're not a mage, and does that mean Shimako isn't human? Has she always been this way or did she change?"

"As far as Shimako, she changed Thursday night at ten thirty when she wished for someone to save her family. At that moment a creature called an Incubator drew out her magic and she ceased to be human, becoming instead a mage. Since she doesn't even know what all that means, I'm going to refrain from saying any more until she can explain it herself." She paused to allow it all to sink in. "As far as me, I'm just a human who had either the good or bad fortune to be the recipient of several wishes, including your daughter's. The reason your guards let me in and are kindly staying out in the cold rather than bothering us in here is because I'm now, shall we say, a very persuasive girl."

Shimako's father rose and he went to sit against the arm of the couch where he could put an arm around his wife's shoulders. "This is all a lot to absorb."

"I realize that. And you don't have to understand or even accept it all right now. But you do have to decide if you're going to flee with me tonight. Shimako and I will take Noriko with us one way or the other. When she made her wish, Noriko was leaning over her and represented the definition of your family at the moment she grasped her gem. Hikaru was in her mind, too, since he's so helpless. I must take them. You adults can decide for yourselves, but anyone staying behind will be at the mercy of the Army when they come tomorrow morning. You'll also be stuck explaining where the girls went."

"Shimako honey, do you trust her?" Her mother's voice was still forlorn, but Noriko had been whispering to her and she seemed to be calmer about the whole thing. At the very least, she seemed open to accepting Shimako as her daughter again.

"I do, mother," she tried to convey her confidence. "I have no doubt she is the person I wished for, and I don't think she could allow us to be hurt if she could help it, much less hurt you. I'm going with her, and as she says, taking Noriko."

"Noriko? Are you okay with this?" It was the first time Shimako could remember her mother seeking Noriko's opinion of anything more important than that she wanted for Sunday breakfast.

The little girl nodded. "I watched onee-chan make her wish. And I like Miss Ainsworth. I want us all to stay together in her house."

The two elder Konno's looked long and hard at each other before nodding. "We're in," her father said simply.

/*/

2 am local, Monday, December 13, 1941
New York, NY, USA

"I'm gonna miss ya, Shimako," Sarah Volpe admitted sadly as the two magical girls considered each other in the cold rain on the dark roadside north of Yonkers.

Shimako had enlisted her friend's help ferrying her family out one by one to Gertrude's waiting car in Harlem. The strangely knowledgeable woman who was their salvation had readily agreed to the Italian girl's help, cryptically adding, "That one has a good heart."

One by one, Shimako had carted her family members through the wall of her room and out into the cold night. Sarah had then helped by carrying first the children to the waiting warm car, and then Shimako's father while Shimako carried her mother. The family quite literally fled with nothing but the shirts on their back since there just wasn't room in the car for anything else. Shimako and Sarah then made their way along the road in their own manner as Gertrude drove up US Highway 9 out of the city.

Shimako had held her breath as her family negotiated the checkpoint north of the Bronx, but Gertrude's wish-born talent of persuasion held up. Although Shimako hadn't learned yet to communicate directly with Gertrude, Sarah was quite able to, and so Shimako was kept appraised of progress in the car by her friend.

Now freedom was before them and Shimako felt a pang of sadness leaving New York behind, despite the events of the past week.

"Maybe you can visit us?" Shimako suggested.

Sarah's gaze seemed far away a moment. "Gertrude says I'm welcome anytime. I wonder how she knows we were talkin' about her? I wasn't sending it to her." The girl shook her head as she added, "That woman scares me."

"Does that mean you won't come?" Shimako asked, suddenly worried she was making a choice between her family's salvation and her only remaining friend.

"Oh, I'll come," the Italian insisted with a new grin. "I have a question or two for her when we have more time. Anyway, ya' need to get going. Hell, maybe ya' might come back and visit me. Without the family, ya' should be fine."

"I'll think about it," she assured her new friend. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too" the Italian girl admitted as she reached forward a moment to hug her smaller friend. "Now get going or we'll be here all night," the older girl urged with a shooing motion toward the darkness.

Author's Note

Thank you to everyone who has Favorited or Followed Mother's Journey or my related stories over the past few months. I'm humbled at the interest after all these years. Really, I will finish this. Life so often just has other plans...