Hello World

	Tall cliffs ridge the shoreline, casting far lines of shade across the narrow stretch of rocky sand and far out over the waves of the sea.  Winds chorus among shafts of stone reaching out from beneath the churning water encompassing all around them.  There are tall blades of grass here that flicker dark and light continuously between pale green and a shifted hue of white.  Below them are small seashells that washed ashore over many years.  There is no other foliage to see besides packets of moss clinging tightly to the rocks.  Life is scarce here but the seagulls have again begun resting in the sides of the cliff.  They answer each other.
	But there is someone else here, too.  Tracing these cliffs lies a single line of footsteps.  At their lead is a child.  Her name is Aniyah.  She struggles to carry her friend.
	"Can we rest soon," her friend says.  Her voice is faint.
	"Just a little farther, Annabel," Aniyah says.
	Ahead there is a vertical inset in the rock.  Here Aniyah places her friend on her feet.  The two settle down in the inlet floored with swept sand for a hurried rest.
	"We need to find something to eat," Annabel says, although it is already understood.
	"Do you think we should move inland?" Aniyah asks.
	"I don't know.  It's so much more difficult.  We would have to climb this rock somehow, too."
	Aniyah is silent.  Finally she says, "We can look for a way.  I haven't seen anything down here."
	The two begin walking again, tugging one another along.  The sun rested heavily atop the ocean.  A few steps ahead Annabel fell against the rock.
	"We will find a way, or a way will find us," Aniyah said, hesitating to stop by her friend.  "We have always found each other in some way or another."
	Annabel gazes ahead.  "What happens when we don't," she says.
	Aniyah takes her hand and they continue along the long rock.
	Finding no path to bring them up did not settle well with Annabel.
	"Aniyah, run ahead," she said in a gust of anguish.  "See if we are going to starve tonight also."
	"No such," Aniyah said and picked up her friend to carry her a few hundred yards.
	The sun had sunk far below the ocean's discreet line, the sliver moon following a few paces behind.  Soon the stars could be seen above the steady clouds.  They both were walking again when Aniyah stopped.
	"Annabel, look," she said, and pointed onward.
	"I can't see anything.  I can't see anything at all," her friend moaned.  "Everything is a blur," she sank to the earth.  "Everything is a blur."
	Aniyah gazed down on her friend.
	"Come," she said.  "I will carry you.  I think I see a way up."
	Annabel lifted herself into her friend's arms and they continued along the ridge.  After many steps, what Aniyah had seen soon came into its proper form.  It was a wooden staircase leading down to the beach from atop the cliff.  Finding a thickened place of grass along the rock, she placed her silent friend down and waited beside her.
	After a while, confident enough she wouldn't accidentally alert another person, she made her way across the sand to the base of the boardwalk.  She climbed a few steps.  It seemed old but not uncared for.  When she reached the top she could see lights through a span of woods.
	"Aniyah!"
	Her name rang out from below.
	"I'm coming," she whispered to herself and hurried down the stairs as quickly as she dared.
	"Aniyah?"
	"I'm here, I'm here," she said, coming near her friend.
	"You scared me," said Annabel.  "I think I fell asleep."
	"It's okay," her friend assured her.  "There is a stairwell to the top.  I went up there.  There are lights.  I am going to go look for something to eat later."
	"You do that, Aniyah," her friend gratefully said.  "I will stay where I am."
	Nearly an hour, maybe two hours later, Aniyah pushed away her slumber and again climbed the wooden stairs.  The lights she had seen were fewer and dimmer now.  Cautious, she made her way from tree to tree until she could see what would become around the lights.
	It was a rather large, three-story house, surrounded by a frail, black fence.  The only lights visible were two, one on each corner of the back of the house which overlooked the ocean.  Aniyah walked around the right of the fence.  There was a car in a driveway which led to a road.  From the road's edge, she could see two, or maybe three houses in either direction.  The front yard was very blank, and the backyard did not offer any greater appeal.  Surely there were better options.  She made her way along the edge of the street to the next house on the right.  It, too, did not draw her within its open gates.  A house a little ways down and across the street did.  The front yard was moderately cluttered.  Chimes rang softly from the front porch.  It was a smaller, one-story brick house, also surrounded by a wiry black fence.  She stepped within its gates and stopped, listening for any changes in her surroundings.  All seemed okay and she made her way to the left side of the house where there was only a small width of yard.  But there was nothing to see here.
	When she stepped into the backyard a floodlight suddenly bloomed.  Startled, she jumped back but something caught her eye.  A twirled wireframe held three dangling bird feeders.  In a flash decision, she sprinted towards them, snatched one off its hook and hurried back out across the street, through the woods behind the first house, and down the wooden steps.  She collapsed beside her friend.
	Aniyah reached out and tipped the feeder. It was half-way full of sunflower seeds.  She split a number of them into her palm and then tapped her friend.
	"Wake up, Annabel," she said.  "I've found something we can eat tonight.  Wake up."
	But her friend was quiet, resting soundly from the day's journey.
	"Annabel," she tapped her as she continued to split them into her hand.  "Annabel, please."
	Slowly her friend awakened and together they finished all she had brought.
	"I will be right back," Aniyah said, resolutely taking the feeder.  "I just have to return this."
	"You do that."
	But when she came again to the brick house a dim light was glowing inside the side window.  The floodlight was on.  Looking in from outside the fence, she could see no one, nor from behind the backyard.  There were many plush furnishings indoors but it was impossible to tell if any were in use.  Seeing no other option, she walked briefly and close to the house, rehung the feeder, and returned without incident to her friend, whom she picked up, and carried onward.  A mile farther, finding a cove, she settled down to stay the night.

	The next morning

	"I will try to walk more today."  Annabel's voice was uncertain and varied.  The friends had awakened a few minutes ago.  "I don't know why I'm so weak."
	Aniyah dropped her head.  "I don't think either of us were ready."
	"Wait, wait, wait; would we be more ready?"
	"Come on.  Let's go."
	With the little strength regained from the night's rest and the generous sunflower's seeds, the two were off again, tracing the cliff.
	"You know?"  Annabel glanced at her friend, patting her stomach.  "We should really find a market again."
	Aniyah grunted.  "I should have gone back and taken another bird feeder.  Those sunflowers were fresh."
	"I didn't particularly like them."
	There was so much to see on their continued walk.  By late afternoon the ridge had leveled to a few steps high, and by sunset bushes provided some cover.  They stopped between two of them.
	Annabel was visibly concerned.  "What do you think?  It's getting more and more open.  I don't know, should we continue to travel by day?"
	"I don't know.  I wish there was a way to tell who was who."

	A few days later

	The two friends are leaning up against a tree.  There are a number of trees here along this main street, and the grass is mown.  Also, there is a fat boy sitting on a bench eating a bag of potato chips.  The girls point to him and whisper.
	"It's worth a try," Annabel says and they begin walking up behind him.  At the last moment they jumped in front of him shouting, not so loudly, "Share with us!  Share with us!"
	But there was one thing they had overlooked.  He had been nibbling ever so slowly.  He was deep in thought.  With a cry, he sprang up and made a mad dash down the sidewalk.  They hurried after him but it only made him flee all the more.  Finally he stopped when he was a good distance away and turned around, huffing.  When the girls caught up to him he said, "Stop!  What do you want?  Who are you?"
	"We just wanted to eat your potato chips," Annabel said, trying to laugh.
	He was still regaining his breath.  He pulled a few out of his bag and held them out.  "Here," he announced.
	Annabel quickly snatched them up just before he turned, and with one last worried look disappeared around a building.  The friends crossed the street and began walking along the buildings, slowly eating their prize.
	"It's not really working," Annabel mulled.
	"We have to find some farms," Aniyah suggested.
	"They always have dogs to let them know we're around."
	"We'll have to think of something.  Really.  Two and a half potato chips for the day isn't going to get us there.  I didn't even know I could eat so little."
	"Hmm.  Me neither."

	Later that night

	"I'm hungry, Aniyah."  Annabel was not far from crying.
	They had come to the shore again, sitting against a large hunk of driftwood overshadowed by giant grass. 
	"Me, too, Annabel," Aniyah replied, closing her eyes.  "Good night," she whispered.

	Two past midnight

	Annabel sits up suddenly and clutches her stomach.  She lets go of Aniyah's hand and rushes to the ocean, cupping some water with her hands and drinking it several times.  Frustrated, she returns to her friend, and collapses, but not for long.  She blusters onto the dimly lit street and follows it down a few hundred feet to a small restaurant.  She knocks faintly on the entrance doors, but no one answers.  Flustered, she scampers around the side, and stalls.  Three burly men are standing there by a bin.  They stall, too, and gaze at her with their mouths half chewing on food.  She inches forward and reaches out her hand.  The men grunt.
	"She want some food?" one asks, confounded.
	Another man reaches into the bin and pulls out a few things.
	"Ah," he says and hands her a partial bagel, which she takes.  "They throw away such good food, it shouldn't be."  He shakes his head in dismay.  She raises two fingers.
	"Two?"  The men balk.  She nods and points behind herself, and to herself.
	"Are you being greedy?" one asks.
	She shakes her head vehemently.
	"You got someone out there?"
	She nods.
	"We got buddies to feed, too," a man states.
	One of them, which had been mostly silent, breaks off a little of his bread stick and hands it to her.  She hurries away, eating what she was given, as chuckles crackle behind her.

	The next morning

	A ray of sunlight causes Aniyah to blink.  She stretches, flips over, and rises to her knees drawing a pile of sand under her hands.
	"Annabel?"
	Quickly pushing herself to her feet, she gazes about her whilst shielding her eyes.
	"Annabel?"
	Her friend was not with her.  She began searching through the grasses nearby.
	"Annabel!" Aniyah exclaimed in relief, dropping down beside her friend.  She was huddled under a lone tuft of grass.  She takes her hand and lies down, gazing up into the cloudless sky.

	Some minutes later

	"How did you get over here?  You had me worried!"  Aniyah says as Annabel sits up and rubs her eyes.  She glances about herself.
	"I remember," she stammers.  "I was thirsty."
	"The ocean is not clean here, you know," Aniyah cringes.
	"I know.  I guess I got lost."  She stands up.  "Are we going to walk all day again?  It's going to take us an awful long time to get anywhere."
	"Maybe we can stowaway," Aniyah fantasizes.
	"Like really."
	And so they walked along the waning beach until noon, when houses with grassy yards claimed the shoreline.  They decided to walk around them and headed onto the streets.  They had been doing so for some hours when they suddenly bumped into an officer of the law.
	"You two finding everything alright?" he asked, easily.
	"Sure," Annabel stammered and then gave him a smile and continued on.
	"Say," he said, catching up, "isn't it late for you two to be outdoors?"
	"Um, is it?" Aniyah tried.
	"Sure," he said.  "Where are ya off to, anyhow?"
	"We are taking a walk," Aniyah said.
	"Mighty long one, I'd say?" he grinned.
	"Not infinite," Annabel chimed in.  He laughed.
	"You look like you haven't eaten for days."
	"Really?" Annabel queried.
	"We have," Aniyah smiled.
	He laughed.
	"We'll be off," Aniyah said and pulled Annabel with her.
	"Wa-wa-wait," he said, stepping in front of them.  "Where are you really off to?"
	"You're being nosy," Annabel told him.
	"Come on, tell me," he said, trying to sound annoyed.	
	"Anywhere," Aniyah chimed.
	"Yeah," he chuckled, "right.  Come on."  He waved them towards himself.
	"See you!" Aniyah said, and they hurried off.
	"Oh no you don't!" he exclaimed.
	"Stop it!" Annabel scolded as he chased them.  It was a long race before he managed to knock one of them down, Aniyah.
	"Stop it!"  Annabel shrieked and flung herself at him.  It had no effect on his heavyset body.
	"I said stop it!" she scolded again, following as he pulled Aniyah away.
	"Come on," he said.
	"What are you doing?" she shrieked and stopped dead in her tracks.
	He continued to drag Aniyah down the sidewalk.  "Come on, don't leave your friend," he chided her.  "I'm sure she will want to have someone to talk to.  Come on."
	She followed him for a little ways.  He rounded two corners and all the while Aniyah was silent, only looking at him.  In fact they all had been silent as he made progress towards his destination, but neither of the girls were set on him getting there.  As quickly as she could, Annabel thrust herself at him and in a flurry of chaos managed to cause him to lose his balance, and while he attempted to regain it Aniyah threw a fit, escaping his hold.
	"Please let us finish our walk!"  Aniyah yelled back to him in a pleading tone as she and her friend tore off again, vanishing from his sight around a house.  The last thing they heard from him was a roger beep.
	A window was open in a nearby house and the girls slipped through it and landed in a kitchen, and closed the window.  They instantly heard someone stepping down a staircase.  There was no where to go.  To her surprise, upon opening a floor-level cabinet beside the kitchen's stove it revealed to be near empty.  Without giving any thought, the two girls crammed into the space and pulled the door shut.
	Someone was in the kitchen.  The sink ran briefly.  A window slid open, probably the same one.  The presence seemed to fade a little when a door bell sounded in the house.
	Aniyah cracked open the cabinet door.  She could hear a large door swing open.
	"Have two young girls showed up here?" they heard a man say.  It was at least not the same officer they had met earlier.
	"I think so," a woman said.
	"Ahem?"
	"Well let me see," the woman said.
	"Mind if I step in also?" the man asked.
	"Oh go ahead," the woman replied.
	"Not good."  Annabel shook her head.
	"Like, really," Aniyah said, dismayed.  She let the cabinet door close.
	It was not long before they heard cabinets start slamming around the kitchen.  And sure enough, theirs opened also.
	"Come out of there!" an officer angrily yelled at them, and they did.  "What are you doing in this woman's cabinets, huh?"
	"We are playing hide-and-seek, of course," Aniyah said, a severe display of annoyance in her voice.
	"Well I found you!" he gruffed.
	"And now it's your turn to hide!" Aniyah called as she and her friend sprinted away.  "I'll count to one hundred thousand!  A million times!"
	But he wasn't paying any attention and bolted after them, slammed into the front door as Aniyah pulled it shut, and hollered, "Come back you two!"
	By the time he got out the door they were no where to be seen.  The woman stood in the middle of her kitchen.  Two girls slipped through her window.  She covered her mouth and gasped.
	"Shh!  Please, shh!" Annabel whispered to her as she grabbed three apples off the counter, Aniyah grabbing another two pears. With another "shh!" they crammed themselves into the cabinet next to the stove.  The woman stood there, gaping.  Fruit crunching could be heard from within the closed cabinet doors.  The woman was walking towards the front door when the officer appeared there again.
	"They aren't here?" he asked.
	"Oh! Oh," she choked, and turned away.  "Will you be around?  I will tell you if they step into my house again."
	"Yeah, we'll be around for the rest of the night," he assured her.  "You keep us posted."
	"Oh, absolutely," she said, and after he turned away, she closed the door and paced right over to the cabinet in which the girls were and knocked.  After it was not instantly opened, she opened it herself.
	"Now what are you two girls up to?" she asked in a dissatisfied tone.  "Get yourselves out of there, please."
	They slunk out.
	"Now you better have a really good reason for me not to bring the police back in here, so go on and tell me it."  She softened her tone.  "But first follow me upstairs to get away from these open windows."
	They did so and she brought them into a mid-sized room which contained a bed, a bureau, a nightstand, and a chair.
	"Go on," she said, seating herself in the chair and lifting her chin to narrow her eyes.
	The girls looked at each other.  The woman twitched.
	"There's nothing really to say," Annabel finally said.
	"Like, really," Aniyah added when the woman turned towards her.
	"Somehow you're here," the woman conjured.  "And why are you such a wreck!  I have not seen anyone is such a state since grade school!"
	"Well," Aniyah started, "if you want to help out you can."
	"I have nothing for you.  That's not true."  She rose from her chair and left the room.
	She reappeared and waved them over.  "Come here," she said.
	"You can at least fix your hair.  What a shame it is!  Both of you, rinse your hair immediately.  Afterwards you will help me clean up the atrocities you created by wearing shoes in my kitchen.  Well, on with it."
	"What havoc," the woman mused as she ran a thick brush through Aniyah's hair.
	"Well so it is!" Aniyah returned, trying to sound displeased.
	She sat in a chair in front of a large mirror in another room.  Annabel sat atop the large dresser on which the mirror was placed.
	"I take it you have no interest in telling me why you're here?" the woman asked.
	"Because we were being chased and we ran away," Aniyah said.
	"Don't you talk nonsense with me," the woman said.
	"I'm sorry," Aniyah said.  "I'm sorry.  I just don't want you to be concerned about us."
	"And why shouldn't I be?  Am I not being so now?  What kind of gratitude is that."
	"I'm sorry," Aniyah sobbed.  "I don't know."
	"I'm sorry," the woman said, taking the brush out of her hair.  "Do you two want some time alone?"
	"No, I'm sorry for breaking," Aniyah said.
	"Of all things, don't be sorry for that."
	"As you say.  Now finish my hair."
	"As you say."
	And so in a small while the three of them were in the mid-sized room.  The woman had prepared them diced pears which they gladly accepted.  The two girls sat on the floor.
	"You can sit on the bed," the woman said apologetically.  "You can stay the night if you wish."
	"Oh how I'd love to," Annabel spoke aloud dreamily.
	"Will you drive us to the next town over?" Aniyah asked.
	"What is there?"
	"The next town over."
	"I see.  I am not sure I want to do that."
	"That's okay."
	"So what do you plan?"
	The girls looked at each other.
	"Please let's stay the night.  She allowed," Annabel petitioned Aniyah.
	Just then there was a knock on the door.
	"You stay here," the woman sighed.
	Below, the door opened and a man talked with her.  Just seconds later he could be heard in the house chatting with her as cabinets were opened and shut again.
	"He's going to search the whole house."  Aniyah was worried.  She darted to the window and looked out.  It was a far drop.
	Annabel joined her.  "Could we tie the bed sheets?"
	"I don't know how to tie a good knot!" Aniyah gasped.
	They were on the stairs now.  Time was running out.  A flashing glance around the whole room showed how spacious and empty it was.
	"Like, whatever," Aniyah said, throwing a blanket over her friend and then over herself.  "We'll walk passed them."
	The two drapes arrived at the top of the stairs and fumbled down just as the woman and her visitor reached the top.
	"Grab those!" the man yelped as he himself grabbed the one on the left.  They could hear he was the officer they had first met on the streets.  The woman however supposedly went into a frenzy and the one on the right slipped passed her, tripped, and tumbled all the way down to the base of the stairs.  She tried to get free but they were already upon her.  Confident and pleased they had wrapped themselves in their own nets, he hauled them off and loaded them into his car.  The woman followed him out the door.
	"And you," he said.  "You knew they were in your house, now didn't you?"
	"They came back and I decided to talk to them," she said dejectedly.
	The officer paused.  "Just alert us first next time so we don't have to burglarize every house in the neighborhood this late at night," he said with a huff.
	"I'm sorry," the woman said.  "Will you please see to it that they get some tender care?  Both of them.  They seem so fatigued."
	"Rest assured," the officer said, saluting her goodbye.
	He hopped in his car and was off.
	The woman returned into her house, and closed the door.  She climbed her stairs and looked at the sheetless mattress in dismay.
	The window had been opened by the two young visitors, and she stood by it, gazing out over the quiet streets.

	"Please, officer," Annabel begged.  "You're interrupting our walk."
	"I know that," he said flatly.
	"Just let us out here and we'll walk to a station," she continued.
	"It's a no go.  Just be hush."
	"What do we do?" Annabel asked her friend.
	"We can make a break for it when he lets us out," Aniyah suggested.
	"Won't work," the officer said.  "I'll pull into a garage first."
	"Well what then?"  Annabel asked tearily.
	"We'll think of something, I guess," Aniyah said, although she did not sound too convinced.
	"I'll think of something," the officer corrected.
	"What if we throw a wild fit," Annabel suggested.
	"I'm too tired," Aniyah sighed.  "And my shoulder hurts from that fall."
	"Good talk, good talk," the officer congratulated her.
	"Who's to say," Aniyah said.  "If you take us any farther then this station..."
	"I won't," he teased.
	"Hush!" she hissed.
	Minutes later they arrived at the local station.  He jumped out and had someone open an overhead door as promised.  After it had closed there were three other officers in the room when he finally let them out of the car.
	"Good work," a husky man complimented.  "Bring them in."
	Suddenly Annabel whispered close to the officer's ear.  "Will you bring us out?"
	His reply was quick.  "No."

	"Now don't forbid yourself some sweet sleep," the same officer commanded as he closed the door to their room.  They were placed in a simple room and were wearing bright white gowns.  After the door was fully closed and the lock's turn could be heard, the friends finished talking.
	"They can't just take all we have.  What do we do?"
	"We can talk to them in the morning."
	They were asleep within minutes, or at least Aniyah was.

	A lone, big man sits on a couch watching a screen.  The room is dark and the crackling of a bag can be heard as he reaches for another handful of salted pretzels.  A teleprompter comes onto the screen with the news of the morning.
	"The two girls who went missing from their local school have been found and are in custody.  What a relief for all of us.  They were forty miles away.  The duo was finally rounded up last night at around ten P.M. as they tried to evade local enforcement.  It is reported they were alone, however their motives remain unclear.  More on this as it unfolds."
	"Ah you scoundrels!" the man hollers and whips his pretzels at the floor.

	The officer stood and knocked on the door for the third time this morning.  Finally he opened it.  His captives were sound asleep.
	"What is the matter with them," he mumbled to himself, then raised his voice.  "Up, it's passed noon.  You're pickup's here."
	But his words rendered void results and he threw his arms up and walked out.
	"Well you can take 'em as they are," he said, approaching another man.
	"What's the matter?" he questioned.
	"That's what I want to know.  We didn't ensure their sleep at all."
	"Well I would like to be off," the other man grunted and followed him to their door.
	"Wake up!" he shouted.
	"Well you take one," he grunted and the two men carried them out into an officer's car waiting at the curb.  They were loaded in and soon off on the road.
	Aniyah awoke some time later.  Trees whizzed passed the windows.  A while later Annabel awoke and opened her mouth, but Aniyah quickly covered it and held her finger to her lips.  The car rattled on.  Ten minutes passed.  The car made a slow turn to the right and stopped.  The driver got out and closed the door.  He walked about his car and peered into the rear windows before heading towards his destination.  A donut shop.
	"Can we do anything now?" Annabel asked.
	"We can try to get attention.  What else can we do?"
	The officer opened the shop door and took a step back as a big man carelessly rambled out, carrying a box of donuts.  The big man stopped and stared back for a second at the vanishing officer then thudded onward.  Passing the officer's car, he gave that another stare, too.  Ahem?  He suddenly turned completely around and went back into the shop.  The officer was at the counter talking to an employee.  He walked about half way to him before turning about again and striding to his own oversized pickup truck.  He pulled his truck up and jumped out.  From the back of his truck he grabbed a large chain and attached it around his boat hook and the officer car.  He then stormed back into his own truck and drove away in a fury, dragging the car behind him with smoking tires.  He had gotten about a quarter mile when the chain came loose and the officer car twisted and bounced off the curb.  When that happened, he backed up, lept from his truck and grabbed a crowbar from his truck.  He then began to wham the back window of the car until it finally peeled away.
	"Get in my truck!" he bellowed as the girls climbed out, being grabbed and pulled by him.  After tossing them both in the back, he returned to his seat and was off.

	"They'll never find you here."
	Parked under a low hanging forsythia, he herded them to a very old barn amongst the trees.
	"I'll be back on foot."
	They heard him drive off.  The two stared at each other.  What was there to say?  They stepped around inside the barn.  It was musky and cluttered.  Suddenly they heard a car slow to a halt outside.  A car door slammed.
	"Oh Aniyah!" Annabel cried.
	"Come out of the barn," her friend replied.  They slipped through some dislodged siding and stood behind a large tree some distance off.  A man, dressed in officer uniform, came around the left of the barn.  Two more came around the right.  They were holding small devices and were walking directly towards the two in hiding.  They halted a few yards away and talked briefly.  After nodding, they spread out and encircled the tree.  When they spotted the white gowns they strode in hurriedly.
	"What are you doing here?" one of them demanded.  "Where'd the pickup go? Speak!  Take them in!"
	The other two took them by the arm and hauled them back to their cars.
	"We'll split 'em up."
	Now when the girls heard that they broke into a frenetic struggle.
	"Calm it!" the officer holding Aniyah shouted.  "Look, I don't know what trick you're going to pull next, but I need you to calm down.  If you don't I'll do it for you."
	She calmed.
	"Please don't split us up," she pleaded.  "We have always stayed together."
	"Until now."
	"Please, officer," she begged.
	"Close your mouth."
	"Officer--"
	"Close it and keep it that way!"
	"Annabel!" she screams.  "Annabel!  Annabel!  Annabel!  Annabel!  Annabel!"
	"If you don't calm down I'll do it and I don't want to do that!"
	"Annabel!  Annabel!  Annabel!"
	"Get in the car and don't fight me."
	"Annabel!  Annabel!  Annabel!  Annabel!"
	"I'm here,"  Annabel says, throwing her arms around her friend. Behind her two officers are in pursuit.
	"Get her off!"
	The two officers came and grabbed her, using their extra weight to pull.
	"Leave us alone!"  Annabel shouted.  But they would not.  They began thrusting themselves away.
	"Let go or one if us is going to get hurt!" one of the two officers yelled.  But they would not.  They held together all the more.
	The men gave a final yank, and then everything stopped for a brief moment, as if in an unframed picture, before the exhausted friends were separated.
	The infuriated officers thrust the two into separate cars and drifted down the pavement once again.  They could see each other through the windows.  It was a long drive.  They arrived at a station and each were led out with an officer on each side into the building.
	"You could be doing better things this moment," Annabel says.
	"Just doing my job," the officer beside her says.
	"Do you like your job?" she asks.
	"I certainly do," he says.  "Otherwise I wouldn't be doing it."
	In the lobby her mother and father were waiting for her, along with her little sister and older brother.
	"Oh, Annabel!" her mother says, rising to hug her as she is led into the room.  "We missed you so much."
	Annabel sits herself on the wall couch, hands over her face.
	"I'm taking time off work to be here," her father says to his daughter.  "Now will you go to school and not let anyone give you any ideas to do otherwise."
	His tone was rather rough and Annabel covered her face.
	"Don't do that!" she sobs.
	"Come home and rest," her mother says.
	"What's the point," she says blatantly, looking up.  "Mother, you know how so many times I wanted to do something and didn't?"
	"Maybe.  I don't know.  We are all so busy.  I'm so sorry if I ignored you sometime."
	"Mother, I have been waiting so long to do something I want to do and now finally I found it.  Do not try to keep me from it because you will fail."
	"Annabel!"
	"I just want you to go to school so you can get a steady life," her father says.  "Do you have a problem with that?"
	Annabel sighs.  "You only fail to see, Dad."
	"Well I'm off then," he growls.  "Go to school so you can enjoy the things I can't!"
	He leaves the room.
	"Is there anything more we can do for you," an officer asks her mother.
	"No, thank you so much for finding her and bringing my daughter back," she says quietly.
	Annabel stares at him.  She says nothing.
	"Come on, let's go home," her mother says and takes her hand.
	"Mother..." Annabel gasps under her breath.
	"What, dear?"
	They get in their car and fasten their seat belts.  A few minutes later they are at their house.  Inside they eat a lunch and chat.  After playing hours of games with her little sister, she collapses into bed.
	At around one in the morning, after not being able to sleep, she tore the sheets off from over herself and walked out the front door.  She kept walking until she came upon the middle-school's playground.  She sat on one of the swings, a troubled sadness flushed over her.  And there she sat until daybreak.  The first cars arrived at the school.  One of the bus drivers came over to her and asked what she was doing, to which she replied with a bit of sarcasm that did not carry, "Just waiting here for school to start."
	"Where are your books?" the driver asked.
	"Oh.  I guess I didn't bring them."
	"Well you still have a half an hour."
	The driver got into her bus and began her morning round.
	When all the kids began arriving she blended herself into the stream and was soon in the school.  Just as she entered the first class of the day, she turned to see her friend tapping on her shoulder.  She had red hair and blue eyes.
	"Hey," she was saying, "you were all on the news and everything.  What happened?  Where were you?"
	Annabel hesitated.  "Remember, Beviley?  I even asked you if you wanted to come; we were going to experimental country."
	"Oh I remember!  Did you get there?"
	"No.  No where close."
	"Aww.  Can I sit next to you?"
	"Of course, Beviley!"
	Throughout the remainder of the day she sat through the remaining classes in which she was ordained.  And finally, late in the afternoon she was on her way home again.  
	As she rounded a corner on the street she thought she saw Aniyah sitting on one of the hand-crafted benches.  When she got closer, she was sure.
	"Well, well," Annabel says, stopping in front of her friend.
	"Oh hi!"  Aniyah lifts her eyes off the cemented ground.  "I was waiting for you.  I wasn't in school today because my parents have decided to keep me out until they can get me into a new school because they think the change will be good for me.  I tried to explain, but I am incapable of doing that as always.  I am also forbidden from talking to you."
	"That's exactly right," says an officer hurrying in from behind them.  "And it's my job to make sure you don't.  Now which one of you is leaving?"
	"Officer, that is not right!"  Annabel screeches.
	"You want to know how much collective time we spent searching for you two?  You think we want to do that again?"
	"We didn't ask you to."
	"You didn't ask us not to."
	"When you found us, we did."
	"Enough.  I already had to sit out here for an hour watching Aniyah.  Why don't you consider continuing home, Bell?"
	"Stop."  She says, looking him in the eye.  She sits down next to her friend.  The two start whispering.
	The officer heaves a sigh.  "You make me do it."
	"No!  You make yourself do it!"  Aniyah shrieks, as he grabs her.
	"You can hands off this case," Annabel suggests.
"Alright then, sit back down!" he scolds.  "You want me to explain to you?  If I 'hands off' I will lose my job and they will send another officer to watch you.  What good does that do for both of us?"
	"It's a trap!"  Annabel shrieks.  "An eternal trap!"
	"Well it's been working, hasn't it?  Or are you too young to recall the past years?"
	"It's..."
	Annabel drops her face into her hands.
	Aniyah gazes at the officer.
	The officer puts his hands on his sides.
	"Come on," the officer says, decidedly.  "One of you, get up."
	Neither of them move.
	"Please don't think we are resisting you," Annabel says.
	The officer grunts.  Just then another officer drives by and, seeing them, stops his car just ahead.  He dislodges from his car and walks over.  The first officer walks towards him and they talk.
	"It seems all so desperately impossible; we'll never get there."  Saddened dismay is in Annabel's voice.
	"When there is a will, there is a way, remember?" her friend reminds her.
	"But I have a will," Annabel sobs.
	"Then you will get there," her friend finishes.
	"Hey, hey!"  The newly arrived officer strides over, waving his hand.  He grabs Aniyah and stands her up.
	"Do you need a ride home?" he asks.
	"No I am okay," she says.
	"You need to show it," he says, releasing her.
	"How so?" she queries.
	"By not being disloyal with your parents."
	"Sir, they are fine living here."
	"Well good for them."
	"But where is the desire for the unknown!  If I grow old, am I going to lose it, too?"
	"I still have some of that," he chuckles.
	"As much as me?"  Aniyah stands herself tall.
	The officer chuckles again.  "Probably not," he concludes.
	"I hope that explains why we rebel when we are young," she says.
	The officer stops for a second and grabs his chin.  "Who is that 'we' you refer to?"
	"All people, really!"
	"Yes, including me, mind you," he grunts.  "You are trying to get to that so-called experiment, aren't you?"
	Aniyah nods.
	"And what do you plan to do if it fails?"
	"Can it fail?" Annabel asks.
	"Don't be naive."
	"I don't mean to be.  I mean, it does not seem to be something that succeeds, or fails."
	The officer squints at her.  "If you die, it fails.  Now if you two want to continue talking, your friend has to work it out with her parents.  Give me your option."
	Aniyah is too slow to respond.  He grabs her suddenly, and without a word brings her to his car.  The first officer is left with Annabel.
	"Nothing more I can do for you?"  He scratches the back of his head and looks off down the sidewalk.  He turns to leave.
	"No there is!" Annabel says quickly and he turns around, expectant.
	"Why don't we here try something new like they are?"
	"Why all the ethical questions," he asks.
	She staunchly gets off the bench and walks away.
	"No, no," the officer says, catching up, "I didn't mean anything wrong.  I am just curious."
	"Is there any point in talking to anyone around here?" she spouts in disgust, emphasizing choice words.
	"Look now, I can see you don't like your hometown, but why not try and do your own good here?"
	"Because I am so naive!"
	"Now don't think down on yourself, also!"
	"But I am!" she shouts, and begins stepping quickly away.  "And so are you!"
	All that remains evidence of her presence are branches of a low hedge she had brushed returning to their prior stance.

	Several days later

	"Do you have to eat so daftly?" Annabel's mother asks her as she eats a breakfast cereal.
	Annabel sighs.  "I feel daft."
	"You're always like that," Dizzy says.  "You didn't used to be."
	Annabel turns to her little sister.  "Yeah, you're right," she says.
	Her mother stands in front of her.  "Annabel," she says.  "There is no need to be so down.  It's a beautiful day outside; why don't you go do something with Beviley?"
	"Beviley, Beviley," Annabel sighs.
	"Isn't she your friend?" her mother demands.  "Or has Aniyah replaced them all?"
	Annabel sighs again.  "Beviley is and always will be my friend."
	Her mother quirks her head.  "As much as Aniyah?"
	"Ugh, yes."
	There is a knock on the front door and her mother hurries to answer it.  A school-girl dressed in warm blue stands there waiting.
	"Hello, Kelly," Annabel's mother welcomes the guest.
	"We wanted to know," the girl starts, "if Annabel wants to-"
	"I don't," Annabel interrupts.
	"Go on," her mother says briskly.
	"Oh," the girl stops.  "We were just going to play soccer."
	"She would be delighted," her mother says happily.
	"Oh," the girl says.
	"Just give me a minute," Annabel says, arriving at the door.
	"Okay," the girl says.
	The two girls skip happily down the sidewalk, and her mother clasps her hands together, leaning backwards in delight.

	The next day

	Outside her house, at the end of her driveway, Aniyah stands by herself, wearing a backpack.  A bus arrives and she steps into it.  Its destination is a school complex.  The contemporary architecture matches with the black pavement of the parking lots, and the grass and trees surrounding it are well kept.  It is here Aniyah will be attending school.

	Later that day

	At the end of dinner, Aniyah and her mother and father sit at their dining-room's table.
	"How was this school?" her father asks.  "What is your opinion of it?"
	"It was okay.  Not much different really," she replies.
	"Good," says her father.  "If anything comes up, let us know."
	"Right."

	In her own room, Aniyah shifts through her backpack and draws out a number of papers.  She places them on her desk, and with a pencil, begins filling out homework.  A while later she takes a set of printed papers from a drawer in her desk and reads them.
	At night, she lay under sheets, her placid eyes mildly awake.  It was impossible to desire her thoughts.

	Weeks later

	"Bye!" Chelsey calls out the window of the receding car.  "Bye!"
	Annabel and those who were present waved good-bye until the little car could no longer be seen.
	"I will miss her," says a girl with pigtails.
	"I will miss her, too," says another.

	The next morning

	A truck loaded with boxes rests in the driveway of a small yellow house.  Little Chelsey bounces around the yard, and in and out of the house.  Her dad and mom continue to bring boxes out of the house and load them into the truck.
	"Let's get Chelsey's bureau," the lady says, and Chelsey and the man follow her into the house.
	"Now!" a voice whispers from within the bushes that line the driveway.  Two girls sprint into the truck and disappear into the darkness.
	"I just hope no one saw us," one of them says.  "Now let's just be awful quiet."

	Some hours later

	"I just thought of something," a voice says in the pitch black.
	"What's that?" answers another. 
	"It's at least a four-day trip; we can't stay in here that long."
	"We can leave when they stop and come back.  The door can be opened from the inside, right?"
	"Let's hope so."

	Slower and slower the truck traveled, the stops more frequent until finally the engine was powered off, causing the two stowaways to hush in the eerie silence.  Two or so hours later, as the clatter of events that could be heard died away, there was movement in the dark of the truck.
	"I'm going to try," someone said.
	"I'll be right behind you," followed an answer.
	Suddenly a white light flicked on illuminating the face of Annabel.
	"Do be careful," she chided.
	The two made their way to the door of the truck.
	"This must be the lock."
	"Wait, pull that," Annabel said as the light fell on a short rope, and as soon as her companion did a loud clank thudded.  And then with a short push the door began to slide open.

	"Do you think anyone would notice us?" Annabel asks.  She and her friend were outside a grocery store.
	"If only we didn't have to eat for three days!" she sighs.
	"We do, though," Aniyah says.  "And food is yummy, too," she trails off.
	"Look there," Annabel says, nodding towards a man hurrying into the store.  "Maybe he would get us something quick?"
	"That might work," Aniyah say and hurries off to catch him just before the store's entrance.
	"Excuse me," she says and he stops.  "Do you know this place?"  She holds out a bill.  "Could you get something delicious for me while you're in there?"
	He takes the bill and with no spoken word continues hurriedly through the entrance.
	"Give him ten minutes," Annabel says.
	"It's been eight," Aniyah says.
	The two continue to wait.
	"It's been twenty and no sign of him."
	"What do we do?"
	"I'll go in," Aniyah says.
	She walks briskly through the automated doors and gazes around, then begins walking along the isles.  There was only a dozen or so shoppers, and none of them resembled the man.
	"Are you finding everything alright?"
	It was an employee.  A name-tag declared her to be Marett.
	"Did a guy come in here with an orange shirt?"
	"I can recall seeing him," she says.
	"Did he buy apples?" Aniyah asks.
	"Maybe you could ask the cashier, dear," the lady says.
	"Okay, I will," Aniyah says, "thanks, Marett."
	To her unastonishment, she was told he did not buy apples.
	"He bought a white sweater and a cap, and some boxed foods.  I'm sorry if I can't be of more help."
	"It's okay," Aniyah says, "just give me a few minutes to get some things."
	"Okay, honey."

	A few minutes later

	"It was him, the second guy that came out in the sweater."
	Annabel does not respond.
	"Anyway," Aniyah finishes, "let's head back through the little ravine."

	Some minutes later

	"There are too many bugs!" Annabel shrieks.  "Come on, let's head back to the hotel."

	Some minutes later

	"It's nice here," Annabel says.
	The two were sat against the truck's rear tire.
	Aniyah smiles. "You know, I think so too, Annabel," she says.
	A solid sleep would steal the residue of the night.

	The next day

	The truck lumbered onward and up the road.  Streaks of color blurred from ahead to behind across the median.  Mile proceeding mile, silently falling away, off from a closing distance, waiting passively to yield within a metre of openness.  At mid-afternoon the truck made a stop at a rest area and the rear door was opened, however the girls had well hidden themselves when the truck had stopped and the door was again closed.  When the truck stopped again, it was for the night.  Again they lifted the rope and stepped outside to find themselves in parking lot surrounding a hotel.  It was a windy night and the wind got caught up in the truck, stirring things about.  Papers began spilling from a box and one slipped out of the truck.  Aniyah grabbed it and put it back in just as two more sheets spilled out.  They gathered those and put them back in, quickly closing the door nearly all the way.  They walked alongside a ways and settled down by the river the hotel overlooked.  The lukewarm water offered some freshness to the hot summer night, and laying on the softened grass, they could not help but let their eyelids fall over the stars above.

	"You alright miss?  Come on now, wake up, you're twisting a fit.  Can you breath okay?"
	"I don't--I don't know!"
	And then she screams and is awake.
	"What is it?"  Aniyah had awoken to the commotion to find a security guard holding her friend up.  They were still on the river's edge, in the fog of the earliest light.
	"Annabel, Annabel," Aniyah softly spoke as she looked and saw the frozen shock of her friend and put her arm around her.
	"Is she okay?" Aniyah asked the security guard after her friend remained silent.
	"I don't know," he says.  "I come over here and she's twisted something awful, half drowned in the river."
	"I'm," Annabel says.
	"What's that?" the security guard asks.
	"I feel okay," Annabel states, though her voice quakes.
	"You tremble," Aniyah tells her.
	"I know," she replies, "but it will go away soon."
	"Are you sure?" the security guard asks.  "You want me to bring over the paramedics?"
	"It's okay," Annabel says.
	Using his radio, he makes a call for paramedics to swing by the river.
	"I meant, I'm okay," Annabel says.
	"They're close by, won't be a minute," he says.
	And so they arrived and evaluated her condition.
	"Calm down, calm down," one of them says.
	"I am calm, it's just fright," Annabel replies.
	"Hmm."  The paramedic does not look convinced.  "I haven't read a heart rate at that speed since I can remember.  You feel okay?"
	"Yeah," she says, "though just a little horrible."
	"Eh?  Can you elaborate on that?"
	"I feel like I'm getting better."
	"Hmm.  Well get yourself an hour's rest and don't stray far from your friend."
	"And keep around people," the security guard amends, "I barely would have found you if not for hearing them splashes.  So long to you and I sincerely hope you enjoy your day," he concludes and the paramedics and he walk off.
	"Thank you," Annabel calls quivery.
	He only turns back, grins and waves.
	"Now the real questions," Annabel hushidly ponders.
	"Well right," Aniyah says and they walk up to the parking lot.  The truck is gone.
	"Hmm.  What to do," Aniyah muses.
	"I liked to stowaway," Annabel says frankly.
	Aniyah laughs.  "We must be half way there or better.  Maybe we can take some transit.  I still have some bills left."
	"Those places are the highest at monitoring for fugitives," Annabel sighs.
	"What about a taxi?"
	"Way too expensive."
	"Hmm."
	Just then a police car drove by and turned right at the next possible place.
	"We probably shouldn't be walking so openly along the streets," Aniyah says.
	"Well where do we go; this is a city," says Annabel.	
	"I wish there was a way to know which way cars were headed," Aniyah muses.
	"Like really."
	Just then a police car, driving towards them in the opposite lane, turned in between two buildings.
	"I hope they don't know us," Annabel sighs.  "We should have bought those masks."
	"Wouldn't help to be wearing masks," Aniyah sums.
	"Oh, I suppose you're right.  Well I really don't know where we're headed.  I don't even know the direction."
	"Let's stop and think."
	The two walked to a large fallen tree in a thicket on the edge of the road and jumped atop it.  From their view they could see cars whizzing by.  High above a small plane channeled through the sky.
	"I wish we could take to the sky," Annabel dreams aloud, "I wish we could, I really wish we could."
	"I wish, I wish I could adore this place," says Aniyah.
	"Almost there," says Annabel.
	"I wish, I wish these cars, these complexes, these high towers we could appreciate," says Aniyah.
	"Almost there," says Annabel.
	"I wish every word, every sound, every sight, a wonder to me," says Aniyah.
	"Almost there," says Annabel.
	"I wish I could answer when someone calls to me," says Aniyah.
	"Almost there," says Annabel.
	"I wish, I wish I could see these things, hear these thing; my touch, could feel them."
	"Almost there," says Annabel.
	"I wish I could be true to everyone, everything, adore it all and be so awesome with it and everyone and smile for real for real!"
	"Almost there," says Annabel.  "Hi Dizzy."
	"Hi Annabel."
	"Come here little sister."
	Dizzy jumped up into her arms and hugged Annabel so tightly, and Aniyah, too.  She stood between them.
	"Don't cry, Aniyah," Dizzy pleaded.
	"I'm trying not to, really, I am," Aniyah replied in tears.
	"There are a whole lots of people watching over you both," Dizzy said.
	"I know," Annabel told her.
	Dizzy frowned.  "What are you doing here," she questioned.
	"Just stopping to talk a little," her sister replied.
	"Talk about what?"
	"Oh Dizzy do you want me to be happy?"
	"Annabel..." Dizzy said dejectedly.
	Annabel sighed.  Annabel sighed again.
	"Hug me, Aniyah," Dizzy pleaded.
	And that is how they remained throughout the heat of the mid-summer day, half shaded by the thicket, Dizzy enjoying a sweet and sunny nap.

	One month later

	(The first of the music.)

	Tall cliffs ridge the shoreline, casting far lines of shade across the narrow stretch of rocky sand and far out over the waves of the sea.  Winds chorus among shafts of stone reaching out from beneath the churning water encompassing all around them.  There are tall blades of grass here that flicker dark and light continuously between pale green and a shifted hue of white.  Below them are small seashells that washed ashore over many years.  There is no other foliage to see besides packets of moss clinging tightly to the rocks.  Life is scarce here but the seagulls have rested in the sides of the cliff.  They answer each other.
	But there is someone else here, too.  Lonely she glides beneath crests of water above her.  Lonely she is here, where life is now scarce; where life has died away.  Lonely is this fish as she glides beneath the crests of water above her, searching, searching, but there is nothing.  Lonely is she, she, she who has survived to be all alone, searching, searching, but there is nothing.  Someone will help her, someone desperately is searching for her; she knows it not.  Someone will help her, someone will cause her to be alone no more; though she knows it not.  Someone will help her; someone is here; she is no more alone.  Someone has taken her and sealed her in a crystal icosphere; someone has lifted her out of the waters.
	Leaves of color all falling down brown and yellow.  Wooded hills tasting freshly again the blue of the sky and the last of the late flowers closing the final time they ever will.  A multistory structure all wet from a steady rain with an array of windows all lit with a color not far from white.  Below, where the vehicles of many shapes and shades all sit awaiting there is this long white stretch of canopy under which Dizzy is walking all silent, her hand clutched in that of her mother's.  Her father will stay behind in this multistory structure this night, his tired eyes sagging from taken sleep all more and more.  He is sat on a chair, he knows not what to think; thus he is sat on this chair beside she who was once his vibrant and merry daughter.
	At home Dizzy does not venture far, she stays close, and does not venture far.  Kelly is here to play with her, but she does not want to play.  She wants to understand, but she cannot.  Instead she listens as Kelly's soft voice hums the words of a book written some time ago not just for her.  She will in her faint tries at knowing drift into sleep and Kelly will place the book aside, rereading the words in her thoughts until she, too, becomes in sleep.

	Morning

	"How are you this morning?  Feeling okay?"
	"Yes, Dad, I feel fine."
	"You keep on saying that."
	"Well I do," Annabel says and sits up.  "Really."
	"Have they found anything?" her father says as he stands up to a nurse who had been waiting.
	"They haven't," says the nurse.  "She's passed the tests.  She may leave when you are ready."
	"And what do I do if it happens again?" her father asks.
	"This," says the nurse, revealing what he'd been holding, some sort of wristband.  "If it happens again this will record it."
	"And you can then use that data to maybe find something?"
	"Yes, just make sure she wears it all the time.  It will beep when it detects something is wrong."
	And so from then on Annabel wore the wristband.  After helping her sister with math and writing, she spent some time reading a few printed papers before tugging over covers and calling the day ended.

	Some time later

	Kelly stands by her window as the sun makes it's way over the tree tops.  Her hand rests on a case.  She seems undecided; she opens the case and from it lifts a viola.  She continues to hold it for almost a minute before quickly shutting it again in the case and leaving the room.  She comes to the kitchen where her mother folds closed a bag for her lunch.
	"I want to take my viola," Kelly says.
	Her mother turns to her.  "Hmm.  I don't think you will have any time to play that."
	"I might," Kelly continues.  "I want to bring it just in case."
	"You'll have to keep it from getting lost or dirty."
	"I know."
	"Kelly, I really don't think you'll get a chance.  You'll just be carrying it around all the time."
	"Mom, please?"
	"Go ahead if you really want to."
	"Thank you."

	"This is going to be so much fun!" hollers a boy from the back of the bus that will take them to the nearest lighthouse for the day.
	"I'm gonna be the first one to the top!" another says aloud.
	"Why are you bringing that?" the girl next to Kelly says, pushing the case.
	"Oh," Kelly says, startled.  "I want to play it in a lighthouse if I can."
	"Are you crazy?" balks her neighbor.  "We'll be following Mrs. Rhain the whole time.  She ain't gonna stop for anybody."
	"You don't think she would allow just a few seconds?"
	"No way, silly!  You'd be better off leaving it on the bus instead of carrying it everywhere!"
	"Well I can still try!" Kelly says.
	"You crazy!  We'll be running around everywhere!"
	"I'll stay behind for a second or something.  There has got to be some minute, we're here all day."
	"Dream on, crazy.  Haven't you been on a trip before?"
	"Yes I have, three I think."
	"And you learn nothing?"
	"I don't know.  Wake me up when we get there."
	"Get off mah shoulder!"
	"No thanks."
	"You crazy!  Okay, fine."

	The bus stopped and children began streaming out, following Mrs. Rhain into a small wooden building.  They walked past the walls looking at glass cases that held prized artifacts of the coast and other collected minerals.  There were planks on the wall to read also, and soon they went downstairs where local rocks, seashells, and fossils were kept.  Next, they went back to the main level and then up a flight to the upper floor, which contained a large sculpted map of the area, various trinkets, and more pictures on the wall with long descriptions.
	"Remember, children, there will be a test coming up on all of this.  Read as many things as you can," Mrs. Rhain reminded them as they made their way out of the building.  From there they headed to an outdoor tree garden, and from there they made their way through a bird sanctuary.
	"You aren't allowed to take anything from there!"  Mrs. Rhain's voice surprised them all.
	"Oh, I didn't!" Kelly said, looking up to her.
	"What is this?" asked Mrs. Rhain, taking it from Kelly's hold.
	"Viola," Kelly said stately.  "I want to--"
	"Take this back to the bus immediately!"
	"Mrs. Rhain--" Kelly started.
	"We will wait here for you, be quick about it!"
	So Kelly ran back to the bus and returned, and they continued on towards the riverside leading towards the ocean.
	"I told you," someone whispered in her ear.
	"mm," Kelly only said.

	"I won!  I won!  I won!"
	And he did win, like he said he would win.  He was the first of them all to the top of the lighthouse.
	"You cheated!" hollered a girl.  "We aren't allowed to run!"
	"I won!" he shouted back.  "You're to scared to run!"
	"Quiet down!"
	"No, I won!"
	"As you can see," Mrs. Rhain was saying, "to our left is the bay area."
	But she was hardly heard, for a terrible race was underway leaving many casualties down along the steps.  Someone was about to be the first out of the lighthouse.
	"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!"  Mrs. Rhain gasped.  "They're going to spread out!"
	As quickly as she dared, she hurried down the stairs -- but she needn't have worried, for a mighty sand war was in place just outside.
	"Drop all sand at once!" she declared.  "Stop!  Stop!"
	She began calling names which managed to get their attention.
	"Can you politely rinse your hands in the water," she asked them, "we still have more places to visit."
	"Where are we going?" they immediately asked.
	"To the harbor," Mrs. Rhain spoke, putting her hand to her head.  "Behave!"
	"Watch out!" a boy suddenly hollered.  "I WILL be the first one there!"
	Mrs. Rhain stood there as her students bolted away from her.  She could see them winding through the docks and walking over the boats parked there.
	"I quit," she said.  "I quit."
	She put her hands on her sides.  "Nope, I don't mind," she said.  "I tried to.  Nope, I quit."
	She took a cellular phone from her carrying bag.

	From up above, she could see her history teacher return to the bus and close the door just as she returned the phone to her bag.  The bus let out a roar and headed towards the harbor, where Mrs. Rhain gathered the children into the bus.  As the quiet rolled on, crouched against the cemented stone wall, in silence, she closed her eyes at least to dream.

	Three weeks later

	Jennie, Annabel's mother, is awake early in the late of night.  She reads a flimsy book of sorts in the light of a dim lamp by a livingroom chair.  She flips back some pages, though unsatisfied she flips ahead.
	A crisp beep makes her raise.  The beep repeats again and again, quicker, quicker it repeats, racing, it seems, against itself.  Jennie hurries down a small hall to her daughter's room, where she lay, her wrist beeping ever faster.
	"Annabel, Annabel," she whispers.  "My dear, what is it?"
	Annabel remains motionless as Jennie lifts her against the bed frame.
	"My dear," she trails off.
	She lays Annabel back down and hurries to another room, where she wakes her husband and they return to their daughter.
	"I'm calling the hospital right now," her husband says while reading his daughter's pulse.  He leaves the room.
	Eight minutes later there is a knock on their door and he allows the paramedics inside.  The beeping continues and they follow him towards it.  After a brief discussion, they decide to take her with them back to the hospital.  Her father follows.
	"It doesn't want to stop," the paramedic says, as he and another lay her on a white bed.  "I seem to recollect something like this, but I'm not sure what."  He looks to his partner.  "Can you call Doctor Tylez over?"
	"What you're thinking of is what happened to Mild Unst," Tylez says as he pauses in the room.  "Or at least I am."
	"I think you're right," the paramedic says.  "Mild Unst."
	"What happened to Mild Unst?" Annabel's father chimes in.
	"He was an old fisherman who came down with something terrible," Tylez says.  "Not that we ought to speculate."
	"He died?"
	"He drove himself to the nearest hospital, which unfortunately did not have the right tools.  They couldn't diagnose him and waited too long to call for outside help.  They tried what they could think of but it was no use, and they lost him within the week."
	"Weren't there two other similar cases?" the paramedic adds.
	"I seem to recall there were," Tylez says.  "Matter of fact, I ought to read up on those."
	A nurse rose from beside Annabel.
	"She does have a high heart rate, which is probably causing her to be as warm as she is.  She should to be given a deeper examination."
	Tylez nodded.  "Take her there while this thing beeps."

	Two days later

	Jennie opens the door to a ring.
	"Hi Kelly," she says.
	"Hi," she says.  "Is Annabel still at the hospital?"
	"She is, and they won't tell me anything," Jennie pouts.  "I am going to drive over there."
	"Can I come?" Kelly asks.  "I haven't talked with her in days."
	"Of course, I think I'll leave right now."
	And so they hop in the car and are on their way.  When they arrive, she asks to see her daughter.
	"Do you have an appointment?" the clerk asks.
	"No, I just want to see my daughter," Jennie says.
	"Let me see," the clerk says, pausing.
	"See if Doctor Tylez is in.  His office is...oh nevermind.  Hold on."  She picks up the phone, and after a brief conversation, says, "He's been out.  Hold on," the clerk says and leaves the room.
	Jennie sighs.  Kelly waits patiently.  The clerk reappears.
	"Your daughter has been transferred to another hospital," she says.
	"She has?" Jennie asks, surprised.
	"I can get Doctor Tylez on the line if you want," the clerk says.  "He's there with her."
	"Certainly do," Jennie says.
	The clerk picks up the phone and dials.
	"Sorry, he doesn't answer," she says.  "Will I have him call you?"
	"Which hospital has she been transferred to?" Jennie asks.
	"Fugue," the clerk says.
	"What?" Jennie asks.
	"Doctor Tylez insisted to take her there," the clerk says.
	"I would like to know why," Jennie says, half to herself.
	"I can have him call you," the clerk says.
	"Is there any chance he will call soon?"
	"I have no idea."
	"Yes please," Jennie says, "have him call me."
	"Now she's six hours away," Jennie says to Kelly in distress as they walk outside.  "I don't like it."
	"Oh," Kelly says.
	The two close the doors of the car and drive out of the parking lot.
	At the dinner table, they would talk more, and in the morning the phone rang.
	Kelly, who had stayed the night, answered it.
	"I'm a friend," she said.  "Oh, okay.  Her mother is here."
	Jennie took the phone.  "Hello?"
	"This is Rud Tylez," the phone said.  "You wanted me to call; I'm sorry for not having done so."
	"It's alright," Jennie replied.  "How is Annabel?"
	"Well."
	"I'm sorry," Jenny said, "well as in doing well?"
	"Oh she's alive," Tylez said.  "She just hasn't waken up since she was dropped off."
	"What?"
	"Just what I said."
	Jennie waited.
	"Her heart rate has only barely slowed," Tylez continued.  "I brought her to Fugue to monitor her more closely."
	After no response from Jennie, he continued.
	"Believe me, I'm with her through day and night.  I will get you a pass here if you would like to visit."
	"I would," Jennie said.

	A high-speed train took her and her husband, along with Kelly and Dizzy to the grounds at Fugue.  They walked the long sidewalk to the enormous building, and were led from there by a young man a long way to a mid-sized room.  Here they found Tylez.  He greeted them and after a short talk, led them into the next room, where Annabel lay, all wound in devices.
	"She awoke for four minutes an hour ago," Tylez said.  "Didn't say anything, only felt these devices before drifting away again.  In fact," he added, nodding towards a screen, "her heart is steadily slowing.  I don't know if that's a good thing or not."
	"Is she's going to live," Dizzy asked.
	"What has been done with her?" her father asked.
	"So far, just kept alive," Tylez said, sounding a bit disappointed.
	"Has anything given a clue to what's the matter?"
	"Her body is extremely active.  To be frank with you, I believe something is using her heart to better itself."
	Kelly shuddered.
	"Don't," Tylez held her.
	"What is it?" her father asked.
	"I don't know now, but I will," Tylez said.  "There are a few more doctors here that will help us.  It can't be nowhere, it can't hide for long."

	An hour later

	Tylez sits on a bench watching as Annabel's heart puts spikes in a line.  Someone knocks at the door.
	"Come in."
	A man walks in.
	"Todd," he says, extending his hand.
	"Rud."  Tylez rises to take his hand.
	"Where is she."
	Tylez waves towards a door and he follows him there.
	"Allow me to learn this place," the newcomer says.
	"Suit yourself."
	The man wanders about the adjacent room before coming back.
	"What is she doing?" he asks.
	"I see," says Tylez.  "She's hugging herself again.  She did this before she woke before."
	"Does everything look set right?" Tylez asks.
	"I changed a few things," Todd says.
	"Her parents are here," Tylez says, leaving the small room.  "I'm going call for someone to bring them in the event that she does wake.  It may prove useful."
	Annabel began to breathe largely.
	"Her beat is dropping," Todd informed.
	Her four guests arrived within the minute, and they were there when Annabel opened her eyes.
	"Annabel?  Are you okay?" Jennie asked.
	Annabel instantly turned to her.  She seemed like she wanted to say something, and Jennie leaned towards her.  They looked into the other's eyes for a long moment; she could see her, Jennie knew.
	"I am in the calm," whispered Annabel.
	"Dear," Jennie spoke, but Annabel was already asleep again.

	One month later

	"Kathy!  Kathy!"
	The excited husky dog came running from around the house and lept into the small car.  No one knew what she did behind the house, nor did anyone need to know.  She found her place on a purple skirt belonging to her best friend, Kathy, and with her ears flapping out the window so began the drive.

	There were always clouds and stars to look at.  One could look at the tree tops also, or watch the ground for critters.  Of course one could listen to the bugs sing or maybe hear an own hoot.  Perhaps one would rather trace the lines made by jets, or listen for a passing car, or a ticking bike.  Rather, that one could could close that one's eyes and ears and breathe the scent of rain.  But why would one do that, that one could watch a spider spin, or a beetle crash once again into the outside wall of a house.  Besides, if rain were near, there might be a triple flash of lighting to see and a clasp of thunder to hear thereafter.  One could let that rain fall on that one, or one could shelter that one's self.  If that one wished to eat another pear, would that one not eat a pear when that one could see a pear right there?  No, that one would not eat that pear if that one wanted to, no that one would not forbid that one's self from eating that pear.  The pear might say, "I'm ripe, I'm ready," but that one would not reply, as that one could be consuming, oh, something else.  So also one may sit, or lay on some softened grass that one may have found.  But no, no, no, no, no, Aniyah knelt by her window doing none of these things.  She was just repeatedly and endlessly replaying a scene from earlier this morning.  It goes like this:

	She taps a nail into a treehouse.
	A girl in a purple skirt hurries up the steps to this treehouse.
	"You're here," she says and hugs Aniyah.  "I've come to say goodbye, I did it, I've convinced them, and we are leaving right now!"
	Aniyah says, "Oh, it's musick!"
	"I wish you could come!" the girl says.  "But I must go now!  I will call sometime when I am there!  I'm so excited!"
	"Please do!" Aniyah says.
	"I will!  Goodbye!"
	And then the girl in the purple skirt scurries down and waves as she disappears from sight.

	Perhaps when sleep prodded her she would cave and the scene would stop, that is, if it did not carry into her sleep also, but for now it repeated.  She had been peering out her window, but now her eyes were closed.  It was late and she was tired.
	Come morning, her thoughts were blank and she prepared for school.  Her father was gone at work and her mother was busy, ever cleaning.  
	"There are plenty of spider webs to clear in the attic," she said.
	"Plenty," Aniyah said and waved goodbye to her mother.
	At school, when her trigonometry teacher finished the class, she tapped Aniyah aside.
	"You must be purposely getting the easier answers wrong," she said.  "Do you not like me?  Or what is it?"
	Aniyah paused for thought.  "I don't know," she finally said.
	"If there's something wrong, tell me about it," the teacher said.
	"But it's not to do with trigonometry," said Aniyah.
	"Then go to the student help office," the teacher suggested.
	Aniyah sighed.  "I don't want to," she said.
	"Then come to me," the teacher offered.
	"You have another class to teach."
	"Just tell me what it is!" the teacher freaked.
	"Sorry," Aniyah said, "but I really don't want to talk about it."
	And she hurried to the next room to be taught how to read.

	School was out, and she was on her way out when she was stopped by a group of class girls.
	"Hey," one of them said, stepping in front of her.
	"What's it," Aniyah asked.
	"We need you," the girl continued.
	"For what?" queried Aniyah.
	"She's not lying," another girl giggled.
	"Surely she's not?" Aniyah said.
	The girls giggled all the more.
	"What then," continued Aniyah.
	"You are so," a girl tried to say, but she was giggling too much to continue.
	"You are so done giggling!" Aniyah declared.
	"Try and stop us," one of them giggled.
	"I will do that," said Aniyah.
	She disappeared behind the corner of the building.  From there she could hear the giggling had subsided to talking.
	"But maybe there's more," she said to herself.
	"Is that all," she said, returning and tilting her head.
	"You didn't stop us from giggling," one if the girls giggled.
	"Nor do I want to now," she added.  "If that is all, I will be gone."
	"Wait."  A class girl stepped forward.  "Help us with math."
	"Here," another girl said, handing her a paper.  "Fill it out."
	Subdued chuckles could be heard from the inner of the group.
	"This is our homework," Aniyah said.  "I have my own to fill out."
	"But they are all the same," a girl said.
	"So will you help us," a girl asked.  "We won't get passing grades if you don't."
	"Are you silly?" Aniyah asked.  "I will never give you a fish!"
	"Oh," the girl said.
	Aniyah left.
	"What does she mean by that," one girl asked the others.
	"How am I supposed to know," answered another.
	"She's probably talking random."
	"Help us, Joshua!" they called as a boy walked by them.
	"What," he said, stopping.
	"What does it mean I will never give you a fish," they asked.
	"What, what," he started.  "Who said it."
	"What does it mean," they prodded.
	"Who said it," he repeated.
	"Some random girl," they said.
	"Who," he asked.
	"Some random girl!  Goodness, Joshua!"
	"I think it means someone loves you for realz," he said, eyes popping.  "Catch you later."
	"What does he mean," a girl asked.
	"How am I supposed to know," answered another.
	"Hey," a girl said, stopping in front of a blond boy.
	"Sup?" 
	"What does it mean when someone loves you for realz," they asked.
	"I don't know, haha.  Is it some sort of joke?"
	"I don't know.  Joshua said that's what it means when someone will never give you a fish."
	"Haha?"
	"What did he mean?"
	"Oh, haha.  He was kind of a man to tell you that. Haha."
	"What?"
	"Nevermind, haha.  Hey I gotta catch my ride.  Later, haha."
	"What did he mean by that," a girl asks.
	"Why do you ask me?" another answered.
	"I don't know.  Hey," she called to a passing boy.
	"What's up?"
	"Why was Joshua kind of a man to tell us it meant someone loves you for realz when they will never give you a fish?"
	"What?"
	"Don't make me repeat it."
	"Okay."
	"So what does it mean?"
	"It doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to repeat it in my head."
	"It shouldn't take this long."
	"Sorry, my head is now scrawled."
	"What does it mean?"
	"I don't know, as my head is now successfully scrawled."
	"Oh, bye," they said as he hobbled away.
	"One more try," a girl begged.  "Hey, Andy!"
	"Hey!"
	"Can we ask you a question?"
	"Go ahead."
	"Why did Bob's head get scrawled when we asked him about Joshua being a man for telling us we are loved for realz when someone will never give you a fish?"
	"Because you're all newbs, that's why," he said satisfactorily.
	"Well now we will fail all math," dully said a girl.
	"Want help?" he asked.
	"Yes!" they chorused.

	Meanwhile, Aniyah was against a brick wall not far off finishing up her homework.  She was tapped on her shoulder from behind.  She turned to see her trigonometry teacher.
	"I have time now," she said.
	Aniyah glanced at her and briefly smiled.
	"I wanted to be a teacher," she said.  "I was surprised when I was told teaching trails learning, but now I understand why all the troubles exist with teaching and with schools.  They told me teaching hid itself when there was learning, yes, that learning prevails teaching.  Teaching trails to spring up when there is no learning.  Why I got those answers wrong is just out of frustration, you need not worry."
	"Who told you?" asked her visitor.
	"Some random people, I don't really know who."
	"Typical answer from you," she said, stepping up.
	"Bye," Aniyah turned to say as she strode away.

	When she arrived home her mother was in the attic.
	"Is that you, Aniyah?" she called.
	"It's me," Aniyah answered.
	"I'm only half done up there," her mother says, climbing down.  "You've reminded me to eat something."
	"Food is yummy," Aniyah says.
	"It awfully is," her mother agrees, getting herself some of it.  "How was your day?"
	"All the same, mother.  I still wish you would bring me to where I want to be."
	"I told you not to speak of it anymore."
	Aniyah sighs.  "It's all I think of."
	"That's not true, you were just thinking of food."
	Aniyah sighs again.
	"And stop sighing," her mother says.  "You used to be a bright and happy little girl."
	"And ignorant."
	"Ignorant is better."
	"I'll go over my homework," Aniyah concludes.
	"Good idea," says her mother.
	Aniyah goes to her room, puts her homework on her bed and lays on top of it.  She sighs to herself, but soon gets up and leaves the house.  She walks down a few roads until she comes to Annabel's house.  She knocks on the door, but the house seems empty and unkept.  She knocks on the door next door.  A middle-aged man answers.
	"I'm just wondering if they are away," she said, pointing next door.
	"Come to think of it, haven't seen anyone there for weeks," he said.
	"Any idea where they went?"
	"Can't help you there.  Sorry, girl."
	"Okay, thank you for your time."
	She returned to her house.
	"Is that you, Aniyah?" her mother asked.
	"It's me," she said.
	"Annabel's father called for you.  He asked for you to call him as soon as you can."
	"Oh," Aniyah said.  "I will now."
	She held the phone.
	"Hello?" a man said.
	"It's Aniyah," she said.
	"Aniyah, listen to me," the man said.

	"She plain doesn't remember!" Annabel's father yells, placing his phone on a shelf.
	Standing with him is his wife, daughter Dizzy, son Matthew, dressed in his army jacket, and Kelly and a few others.  On a white cot lays Annabel, her appearance faded.

	Meanwhile, Doctor Tylez sits in a small room surrounded by screens and a keyboard.  His face drips with sweat as his hands release fury on the keyboard.
	"Why didn't I do this sooner," he groans.  "How can I believe this?"
	He pushes away his chair and runs through a hall to where the others are standing.
	"Is she still alive?" he bellows.
	"She still is," a nurse says calmly.
	"Matthew, call your army," Tylez demands.  "Tell them to pick up this girl from the roof and fly her to wherever this place is I've written here.  Tell them to get in contact with Python Kazenstrekuni in whichever way possible."
	Matthew looks around at the others.
	"Delaying is death!" Tylez hisses.  "The army has the tools.  You're with the army, you call the army."
	Matthew reaches for his phone and steps out of the room.
	"And you others," Tylez continues.  "Get her to the roof.  And I don't care who's allowed up there, just get her to the roof!"
	The skeptic nurses shrug and roll the cot away.
	"What is it?" Jennie asks.
	"I don't know, I don't know," Tylez moans.  "They claim to have cured some turtles."
	She waits for him to continue.
	"They made a reference to Mild Unst, saying it would have saved him alive."

	Two people stand on the roof of Fugue by a cot.  A black helicopter settles fifteen feet away and opens a wide door from which two jump out.  They lift the cot into the door and close it.
	The black beast returns to the sky but it's down soon, beside a jet that waits at the base of a runway.  No sooner is the cot sealed in the jet that it leaves the the earth and takes to the sky.

	A hand crafted bench holds Aniyah in the night.  She whispers Annabel's name under sobs.

	Winter

	The bench had become a common place for Aniyah to reside, and there she was this winter morning.
	Later, she walked to the library.  She read a book at one of the tables.
	"Will you teach me to fish?"
	She turned to see a girl by her.
	"I'm kidding," the girl smiled.  "But will you help me with an essay?"
	"Sure," she said, closing her book and placing it aside.
	"Great," the girl said, taking a chair for herself.  "If you don't already know, I'm Cloey.  Are you doing the essay for social studies, too?"
	"Yes, I am."
	"Yeah, it's that one.  I think I found who I want to do it on.  Here."  She placed a book on the table.
	"Oh?"  Aniyah grinned.  "I want to laugh."
	For the remainder of the day, Cloey, with her notebook, and Aniyah walked from tree to tree, trying to learn as much as they could about the tree's social life.  Some trees did not like anything but dirt beneath them, while others didn't mind, and thought it was cool to have some grass in their shade.  Some even went so far as to hide their entire trunk.  And at the end of the day the two girls parted ways.

	The winter was long and there was only brief fragments of snow.  For Aniyah, it was dull.  Sometimes Cloey would come to her, but on the usual day she was alone.  She knew what she wanted but did not know how, nor who to ask.  So the days went by and by and all the while she grew more acceptant of her situation.  She was withheld far beyond she knew, and her desire had slipped away, unnoticed, as if it never were.

	Early Spring

	As the deep snow melted, Annabel would awake when Samantha was near.  The weeks following would be frail for her, but she would live.  As her hearing returned, she could hear Python, and Akane, to whom Samantha was daughter, speaking of things she knew not of.
	Before long however, she began to learn of them.  She would travel far and wide, following her curiosity, and sometimes to somewhere unknown, to see what would become of the place.
	It was on one day that there came a knock on the door to the room she and others were in.  The door was opened and a girl came in.
	"Beviley!?"
	"Oh, Annabel!  Annabel!  You said I could come!  Remember?  My dad had to come here for business and he let me come visit you since it wasn't so far!"
	And Beviley was with them for one hour, before she was called to leave.
	One day, when she was visiting Python, she asked him of this place.  Although she was already sure it had to be, she wanted to be certain of the matter, and Python confirmed this for her, that it was where she and a friend spoke of one year ago.
	She would call her friend and speak with her as before, and even leave this place to meet her again, for she had fledged.  She knew now what she struggled to know before, and it was real.