Act Two From Butterflies to Fireworks Amongst Rocks and Amber Chapter Twenty-Two: No Place Like Home
••Lashanie••
The rolling hills girding the village are still as magnificent a view as when her family had first come to Old Corona about a decade ago, and their sight works to salve Lashanie's mind while her mama—now awake and eager to voice her displeasure at being back—repeats her plans for their future. To her, a new chapter of their life in Equis presents itself as imperative. And, for the moment, Lashanie tries her best not to imagine what that life might look like. What appeal could a future away from the home of her heart possibly hold, after all?
In the aftermath of the nighttime argument Lashanie overheard, her papa seems eager to avoid giving an untoward reaction and potentially rekindle a fire that would be hard to put out. His gaze, distant, is fixed at the window and his lips give no sound.
Finally, the carriage crests the last uphill slope, Lashanie's heart lifting in kind with anticipation, and Old Corona comes into focus with all its lovely little houses and the lakes reflecting the sunlight like diamond glitter. And the very instant her eyes fill with the sight of it, a bone-deep jolt steals the air out of Lashanie's lungs. There are black spikes everywhere! In their absence, the rocks have multiplied tenfold at least. She blinks, once, twice, three times, desperate for reality to rearrange itself. In vain.
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