They rushed out the door, grabbing anything and everything they could think of they

might need. There was no time to double-check to make sure they weren't leaving
something important behind. Everything was thrown into the car and they sped off.
Thirty minutes later they were safe and that was when it dawned on them that they
had forgotten the most important thing of all.
The cab arrived late. The inside was in as bad of shape as the outside which was
concerning, and it didn't appear that it had been cleaned in months. The green tree
air-freshener hanging from the rearview mirror was either exhausted of its scent or
not strong enough to overcome the other odors emitting from the cab. The correct
decision, in this case, was to get the hell out of it and to call another cab, but
she was late and didn't have a choice.
"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.
There wasn't a bird in the sky, but that was not what caught her attention. It was
the clouds. The deep green that isn't the color of clouds, but came with these. She
knew what was coming and she hoped she was prepared.
It really shouldn't have mattered to Betty. That's what she kept trying to convince
herself even if she knew it mattered to Betty more than practically anything else.
Why was she trying to convince herself otherwise? As she stepped forward to knock
on Betty's door, she still didn't have a convincing answer to this question that
she'd been asking herself for more than two years now.
She reached her goal, exhausted. Even more chilling to her was that the euphoria
that she thought she'd feel upon reaching it wasn't there. Something wasn't right.
Was this the only feeling she'd have for over five years of hard work?
The box sat on the desk next to the computer. It had arrived earlier in the day and
business had interrupted her opening it earlier. She didn't who had sent it and
briefly wondered who it might have been. As she began to unwrap it, she had no idea
that opening it would completely change her life.
Twenty-five hours had passed since the incident. It seemed to be a lot longer than
that. That twenty-five hours seemed more like a week in her mind. The fact that she
still was having trouble comprehending exactly what took place wasn't helping the
matter. She thought if she could just get a little rest the entire incident might
make a little more sense.
She wanted rainbow hair. That's what she told the hairdresser. It should be deep
rainbow colors, too. She wasn't interested in pastel rainbow hair. She wanted it
deep and vibrant so there was no doubt that she had done this on purpose.
The red line moved across the page. With each millimeter it advanced forward,
something changed in the room. The actual change taking place was difficult to
perceive, but the change was real. The red line continued relentlessly across the
page and the room would never be the same.
He watched as the young man tried to impress everyone in the room with his
intelligence. There was no doubt that he was smart. The fact that he was more
intelligent than anyone else in the room could have been easily deduced, but nobody
was really paying any attention due to the fact that it was also obvious that the
young man only cared about his intelligence.