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ure of the man she loved. |
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"Hey!" came an unfamiliar voice. "What are you doing there?" A officious-looking man rattled the metal fence behind the closest creatures. |
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Abby looked at them more closely. They seemed less threatening as they continued to stand silent and still. In fact, they seemed unreal, like effigies. |
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She pulled herself to her feet and slogged her way toward Mike. |
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Their fingers gripped one another's through the mesh of the fence. He was even taller than she remembered, and the handsome, firm features of his face, so much stronger than Arlen's, were stern. She recalled their last night of shifting stars. Was he still angry? |
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"Hello," she said in a shaky voice. He was here. She did not know how. But any doubts she had had about his forgiving her evaporated as he smileda warm, loving, welcoming smile. A current of happiness filled Abby, as quick and potent as the flash flood on the desert. Her delight exceeded her own sense of joy, for it was doubled. Once more she shared Mike's emotions. |
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She wanted to be with him. She had come such a long way, and yet they were still separated by the metal fence. She looked around for a way to reach him. |
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No one else was in the area with the seeping pool, though passersby peered in at her through the fence. She must look odd in her long, pitch-covered dress, her bonnet, her face that must be |
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