Marlene and Josie spent their evenings together cooking, eating, and drinking wine. They talked. They started to get to know each other better by playing a ‘Me-You’ game…..slowly trusting each other with personal truths.

Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces… Even when I must walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff reassure me.Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. Walking at night is like discovering a new world on your doorstep, one that allows you to roam beyond the duration of winter’s short days and explore in the time of Covid. As Henry David Thoreau wrote in Night and Moonlight: “Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day.” Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content." - The Story of My Life, Helen Keller My journey through the memories of Verandis continues. We've reached the top of the Doomcrag. The Ayleid relic should be through the doors ahead. I should follow the others inside and see how events unfolded. Taken to court, the disorientation continued. The judges were out of Kafka, but as in Kafka, not savage or brutal, but erratic, bewildering, surreal. He found that he had been arrested not, as originally stated, for sending “subliminal messages” in support of the attempted coup, but for having participated in it. Challenged as to the change of charge, the judge, remarked, airily: “Our prosecutors like using words the meanings of which they don’t know.”

WOW. My first ever NetGalley read, and what a treat. Thank you to them for the ARC, it will likely be my favorite read of the year. I’d read Magariel’s One of the Boys when it came out and loved it, and was defensive of it when some reviewers chastised it, for its grim portrayal of childhood trauma. I am already equally as defensive of this book about grief. A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? … San Diego Walk Join us on October 21, 2023 Donate Welcome to the Out of the Darkness San Diego Walk 10/21/2023 I drank the potion and entered Verandis's memories. In fact, in the memory, I am Verandis. I should try to discover what happened in this memory.

Comments from the archive

Normally at this time of night I’d be having a glass of wine in front of the television, but being out in the countryside is a purer form of relaxation. I forget about work and family tensions and begin to blend into the surroundings. There is no one other than Nigel to see or hear me and, with little visual distraction, my mind calms.