It's taken Karen a while to get everything in place. Last week, she discovered that she could climb one of the trees just opposite the compound and overhanging the boardwalk. That evening, she'd sat up in it until Rollie told her to come down. A few days after that, she'd discovered the water-balloons forgotten in the corner of Miss Charlie's ( Read more... )

Dated August 20, 2010:
It was this part of the game that Anatoly liked best - the beginning where things were so uncertain and each move was as much about sizing up your opponent as it was setting your strategies in motion.

Two men play chess. It is less a game than an assessment.

[ HERE | in progress | PG]

Karen is watching Mulan again ( Read more... )

Dated August 6th, 2010:
"Or we could watch..." She thinks about this for a moment. "Mulan. Because it's got fighting in it. And boys like fighting."

"I'd like that," he replies, the words awkward in his mouth (when is the last time he's said anything similar?) but sincere in spirit.A little girl and a Nazi spend an afternoon watching Disney movies ( Read more... )

Hellstrom's growing restless; there's no denying that. The rain didn't help that. After spending the large portion of the first day of it inside, he found he couldn't do it any longer, and as a result spent most of the rest of what he supposed was rain season soaked to the bone. Now that it's clear, the time he spends wandering has gone back to ( Read more... )

This was such a huge mistake ( Read more... )

There were a number of things that Hellstrom had come to expect on the island. Recently that set of expectations had been thrown for a loop, what with people switching bodies -- hardly an occurrence in everyday life. (If nothing else, he counted himself lucky for not having become a victim of whatever influence it was ( Read more... )

The silver lining is that this old Guido has never looked better ( Read more... )

The party had been fun, Hellstrom couldn't deny that (although he still wasn't sure what he thought of the boy who'd arrived dressed as the Führer). It had been a change from how he'd been spending his evenings, certainly. Now that he wasn't dealing with a war, not that he served no function as a soldier, the effect of having too much free time on ( Read more... )

With the sun's last rays dwindling in the sky and all manner of friend and volunteer being so wonderfully helpful, Jane believed that New Pemberley was well-equipped for the evening's festivities. She had the loveliest of help from her friends who only deserved the most effusive words of praise for their tasks in helping with chairs, tables, and ( Read more... )