If any one was looking, they would have seen a good looking man staring, unseeing, out of the back seat window. The medium dark blue car with the sparkles in the paint was his armor.

But it was of little use against the turmoil inside him. Centuries of conflict, distant battlefields filled with the screams of comrades and enemies, the numbing grief of losing friends and lovers over and over, all churned his thoughts and clouded his vision.

If any one was looking, they would have seen it deep in his eyes.

He sat so still while these memories and stories filled in the spaces around him.

�But.......� he said out loud in the empty car �........enough!!!�

With a studied discipline honed over the years and Chi Gung cleansing motions, he succeeded in discharging the dark energy of his mood.

And just in time, for there was a commotion growing outside the car and three giggling clan sibs loaded with bags of party supplies tumbled into the car. Merriment soon filled those morose spaces as the girls bubbled with secret plans and mayhem making.

Lahoffy started her new car and set up the stereo to ear-numbing decibels as Lifehouse music went spinning through the car. Hayden sat next to her, gesturing animatedly of some of the shenanigans they were plotting for the evening festivities. Vidalia sat next to Duncan in the back and giggled while she recounted the bottles of Merlot and proudly showed him the Red and Black Cuillin they had found in the small Scottish market in the mall.

Lahoffy looked in the rear view mirror and saw some of the clouds that had filled her friend�s eyes and she turned and told him there was something for him in the top of the bag at his feet, but he wasn�t to look at anything else. He reached in and found a tin of Garvey�s scones and shortbread (the closest he had found in this modern age to his mother�s). He also saw a blue feather duster, a bottle of Mr. Bubbles and mangoes, but he didn�t say anything. He sat back and munched the sweet buttery cake.

Lahoffy was looking........and she understood; so he leaned forward and tweaked her wild curls and adjusted her halo and smiled conspiratorially while he wiped the crumbs from his chin.

pacemCDC
May 29, 2003

Back to The Playroom

Back to the Library

Home