Free Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story by Laura Franklin

weirdness thrown in. How ‘bout you?” He leaned in to give me a morning kiss.
     
    “I got a priest and entourage coming to help us.”
     
    “Perfect!”
     
    “But…my weird was me in a frilly dress.”
     
    “My weird was me as an old guy, walking down the street behind a Model-T!”
     
    “No!”
     
    “Yes!” Mick mimicked the way I just blurted that out.
     
    “Well, hell Mick. You didn’t see me there?”
     
    “See you where?”
     
    “On the street?”
     
    “Nope. You tellin’ me you were there?”
     
    “Yeah, did you get a look at yourself?”
     
    “No, I just saw my hands were older and my body felt stiffer.”
     
    “I saw you, you were you – but different. You had a different face, different hair, even a different body type; but your eyes were exactly the same.”
     
    “Wow. Really?”
     
    “Yes, and we know each other, I was younger and you were a guardian or something. We weren’t…well… whatever we are now. But we liked each other, we were friends.” I finished quickly, it was too soon for the “L” word, but I almost said it. I think I saw that Mick knew. He was smiling at me.
     
    “I wonder if that is like the others, a flashback? That would mean we lived before. Or if it was just a sweet dream this quartz is giving us both?”
     
    “I don’t know what’s going on, but how can we of lived before? That is so flipping not real. I don’t think I can get my brain around some theory like that.”
     
    “But you are our Super Brain!” Mick was laughing at me.
     
    I stuck my tongue out at him and we plopped down to eat with a small group of our caravan who were also up early and watching us like we were the morning news.

Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    “Father Polus! Father Polus!” Kim called from the back of the group. Steve actually heard some of the others groan out loud. He better not make this loud so the others could overhear and be even more angry with Kim.
     
    “Ok, everybody. Go ahead and take 5.”
     
    This was the fifth time that Kim had whined to call the group to a halt that day. She was getting more and more annoying. Steve had hoped she would be toughening up each day, instead she seemed to be slipping.
     
    “Kim, we need to really keep going. Make it quick.”
     
    “Yes, Father. But my foot, I have a blister and I need to just rest it for one night. We should stop here.”
     
    “Kim, we have at least 3 hours of travel light left. We have to keep going.” He wondered how she managed to keep that light golden hair in such good shape. If she would only concentrate that much on the journey!
     
    “Father! I’m in pain. Don’t you care about me?”
     
    Wow. “Kim, of course I care. But this is not some hike we’re on. We have to get north to that lake before winter hits. Look around you. Most of the leaves have turned color now. Only a handful of trees still have their green leaves. I don’t know if you pay attention to the natural world, but that means we only have a few weeks before all the trees are bare. Only a few weeks before it starts to get really cold out here. We have to really get moving!”
     
    “I’m only asking for one night. Just stop now and give my foot a rest, that’s all.” Kim tried to smile and look helpless. She watered up her baby blue eyes. That helpless look is what broke his self-control.
     
    “Today it’s going to be one night for a sore foot. What will it be tomorrow? A hangnail? Get up and start moving with us – tuck an extra sock around your foot. You are going to keep moving with us or you are going to be resting your foot all by yourself!”
     
    “What!? You can’t leave me alone out here. There are still criminals roaming around.”
     
    “Kim, I don’t want to leave you. But there are others here who are also walking on blisters. This is the way it is. I am not going to risk their lives so you get a rest for a sore foot. Up and move, or sit and be on your own.”
     
    Kim was staring him with