It was difficult for him to admit he was wrong.

He had been so certain that he was

correct and the deeply held belief could never be shaken. Yet the proof that he had
been incorrect stood right before his eyes. "See daddy, I told you that they are
real!" his daughter excitedly proclaimed.
Since they are still preserved in the rocks for us to see, they must have been
formed quite recently, that is, geologically speaking. What can explain these
striations and their common orientation? Did you ever hear about the Great Ice Age
or the Pleistocene Epoch? Less than one million years ago, in fact, some 12,000
years ago, an ice sheet many thousands of feet thick rode over Burke Mountain in a
southeastward direction. The many boulders frozen to the underside of the ice sheet
tended to scratch the rocks over which they rode. The scratches or striations seen
in the park rocks were caused by these attached boulders. The ice sheet also
plucked and rounded Burke Mountain into the shape it possesses today.
She counted. One. She could hear the steps coming closer. Two. Puffs of breath
could be seen coming from his mouth. Three. He stopped beside her. Four. She pulled
the trigger of the gun.
Sometimes that's just the way it has to be. Sure, there were probably other
options, but he didn't let them enter his mind. It was done and that was that. It
was just the way it had to be.
She patiently waited for his number to be called. She had no desire to be there,
but her mom had insisted that she go. She's resisted at first, but over time she
realized it was simply easier to appease her and go. Mom tended to be that way. She
would keep insisting until you wore down and did what she wanted. So, here she sat,
patiently waiting for her number to be called.
There were little things that she simply could not stand. The sound of someone
tapping their nails on the table. A person chewing with their mouth open. Another
human imposing themselves into her space. She couldn't stand any of these things,
but none of them compared to the number one thing she couldn't stand which topped
all of them combined.
It was difficult to explain to them how the diagnosis of certain death had actually
given him life. While everyone around him was in tears and upset, he actually felt
more at ease. The doctor said it would be less than a year. That gave him a year to
live, something he'd failed to do with his daily drudgery of a routine that had
passed as life until then.
Barbara had been waiting at the table for twenty minutes. it had been twenty long
and excruciating minutes. David had promised that he would be on time today. He
never was, but he had promised this one time. She had made him repeat the promise
multiple times over the last week until she'd believed his promise. Now she was
paying the price.
As she sat watching the world go by, something caught her eye. It wasn't so much
its color or shape, but the way it was moving. She squinted to see if she could
better understand what it was and where it was going, but it didn't help. As she
continued to stare into the distance, she didn't understand why this uneasiness was
building inside her body. She felt like she should get up and run. If only she
could make out what it was. At that moment, she comprehended what it was and where
it was heading, and she knew her life would never be the same.
"Are you getting my texts???" she texted to him. He glanced at it and chuckled
under his breath. Of course he was getting them, but if he wasn't getting them, how
would he ever be able to answer? He put the phone down and continued on his
project. He was ignoring her texts and he planned to continue to do so.
She sat in the darkened room waiting. It was now a standoff. He had the power to
put her in the room, but not the power to make her repent. It wasn't fair and no
matter how long she had to endure the darkness, she wouldn't change her attitude.
At three years old, Sandy's stubborn personality had already bloomed into full
view.
His parents continued to question him. He didn't know what to say to them since
they refused to believe the truth. He explained again and again, and they dismissed
his explanation as a figment of his imagination. There was no way that grandpa, who
had been dead for five years, could have told him where the treasure had been
hidden. Of course, it didn't help that grandpa was roaring with laughter in the
chair next to him as he tried to explain once again how he'd found it.
Sometimes it's simply better to ignore the haters. That's the lesson that Tom's dad
had been trying to teach him, but Tom still couldn't let it go. He latched onto
them and their hate and couldn't let it go, but he also realized that this wasn't
healthy. That's when he came up with his devious plan.
Eating raw fish didn't sound like a good idea. "It's a delicacy in Japan," didn't
seem to make it any more appetizing. Raw fish is raw fish, delicacy or not.
Don't be scared. The things out there that are unknown aren't scary in themselves.
They are just unknown at the moment. Take the time to know them before you list
them as scary. Then the world will be a much less scary place for you.