Sapphire Eyes ~ 10 Chapter Challenge

One Year Before the Letter

Searching ~ Mia

I park the car and check the time. Three o'clock. School should be about to let out. I grab my sunglasses and my straw sun hat, put them on, and turn the car off.

I reach behind my passenger seat for my sketchbook. Open it to the marked page to make sure I haven't lost the photograph of my little girl. Of course, it's still here, paper clipped to my drawing of what Miri might look like at fourteen. I kiss my fingers and touch the drawing. "Happy birthday, baby."

I get out and lock up the car, start down the long sidewalk toward the beach. There aren't many teenage girls in sight, and I don't see anyone with my daughter's beautiful dark hair. But the beach is huge. It takes an entire afternoon to cover the whole area, and I'm planning to search it over twice, maybe even three times.

If she's here, I'll find her.

Recover the Fall ~ Jim

I put the finishing touches on the grid, step off my ladder, and admire my work. This mural will be great.

Now for the maddening part. I grab my heavy-duty scissors and roll my chair up to the wall where I mounted the butcher paper. My hand already aches from the mere thought of cutting out each square on the grid. I take a seat and start with the bottom left corner, resting my hand for a second after cutting out each square.

The sound of squealing tires breaks the silence in my studio. That's close. I stand and hurry to the window. It's Mirna. She speeds into the driveway and slams on the breaks in front of the garage. She slams her car door shut hard and storms up to the front door. The whole house shakes as she slams that door too.

Oh, boy. The Lone Star becomes a meteorite. Time to go recover the fall.

We meet in the hallway, but she doesn't even act like she sees me. For some reason she doesn't slam her bedroom door shut after her. That's an invitation to talk if she's ever given me one.

I stand in her doorway. Mirna crash-landed on her unmade bed. The pillows and bunched up comforter actually give me the impression of an impact crater. "Hey, Sapph."

"Hi Jimmy." She makes her voice sound carefree and airy. Well, she tries to anyway. Instead she just ends up sounding incredibly miserable, but apathetic about the fact that she's miserable.

"How was your day?"

"Horrible."

I move up and take a seat on the edge of her bed. "Horrible?" I put my hand on her shoulder. "Was there an earthquake at the school that I didn't hear about?"

She pushes my hand off, but for just a split second she can't hide her smile. "I can't have a bad day unless there's a natural disaster?"

"Just trying to put it all into perspective." I drop the tone. "Seriously now, tell me about it."

She hesitates, then shifts and lies back on her bed, staring up at the mural of the night sky covering her ceiling.