Free The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival by Kevin Kimmich

nodded in appreciation,
then gestured at his daughter. “Honey, you take it from here.”
     
    “I love the car.” she smiled brightly. The
owner was charmed. She had an uncanny ability to make people happy.
“How firm are you on the price?”
     
    “Well, I’m selling it for my daughter.
Ultimately, it’s up to her, but I think she’s a little
flexible.”
     
    “Would you take $2000?” She asked.
     
    He rubbed his chin. “Let me call her.” He
glided away around a flower bed and called his daughter. They
chatted for a while. He walked back and put a hand over the phone,
“would you do $2500?”
     
    “How about $2250?” she countered.
     
    “Yeah,” he nodded and gave a thumbs up, “She
says OK.”
     
    Chloe hopped in the air a few times. Both the
men laughed. “First car!” she said.
     
    Keith paid him the cash. The man handed over
the keys. They drove back to the condo, then she drove them both to
the park. She was beaming and singing every single car song she
could think of.
     
    “Two laps?” Keith was stretching.
     
    “Let’s take that little connector path over
there?” she made a zig-zag motion with her arm.
     
    “Oh, yeah, that little trail, sure. Warm up
the first lap?”
     
    ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll take it easy on you.” She
smiled.
     
    Their footfalls crunched over the trail
rocks. They loped along easily for the first couple of miles. The
stone trail made a big loop around a field, then crossed into the
woods. There was a little footpath that was worn in the woods that
cut from one section of gravel path to the other. It wound through
trees and over small dirt piles and went over a couple of logs. She
sprinted ahead of her father through the section.
     
    Her breathing increased and her mind was
entirely occupied by determining where her feet should land on the
irregular surface. Keith loped along behind her as she shot away
into the foliage like a rabbit. He was careful not to trip and
fall. When he got back on the main trail she was jogging lightly in
place, “C’mon slowpoke!”
     
    They finished the first lap. He said, “off
you go tiger!” She sprinted away. He picked up the pace a little
bit, but didn’t even try to keep up. He was only about half way
around the field loop when she was already a small dot heading to
the woods. He shouted, “go, go, go!”
     
    He cut the course short, and got back to the
parking lot just as she was wrapping up. “Cheater!” she
shouted.
     
    “Man, you got jets, girl! Hey, let’s go check
this place out.”
     
    They walked around the main complex of
buildings at the park. There was a small helical turbine spinning
in the breeze. It was a white blur against the blue sky. A couple
of people were setting up tables in one the buildings. A young
woman in a green park sweatshirt walked outside to meet them.
     
    “I’m sorry, the park’s actually going to be
closed for the evening.”
     
    “Closed?”
     
    “Yeah, once we’re done here, we’ll put the
signs out. We didn’t get a chance to do it earlier. There’s a big
event tonight.”
     
    “OK. It’s a lovely place here, keep up the
good work.” Keith said.
     
    “Oh thanks! You guys have a good day!”

Chapter Six
    Thousands of years ago, glaciers carried a
big flat boulder south from a river valley in the Canadian Shield
to what became the state of Ohio. The boulder was greenish gneiss,
shot through with pink veins of marble--it looked like something a
giant would use to skip across the ocean.
     
    When the glacier receded, the boulder slid
down onto the muddy ground along with tons of debris and dirt. Year
after year, rain and snow percolated through the soil around the
boulder smoothing the massive pile of dirt into a gently sloping
hillock. Moss and grass knitted the soil together but eventually
the top of the rock emerged into the sun. For centuries, animals
like deer and coyotes, squirrels and chipmunks would pause on the
the rock for a rest. When the Wells