Christmas Morning, Post-Wrapper

Sky says, "Less someone else wants, let me try the heavy brute one. Five to nine nothing happens."

"I'm in for five dollars," says Richter. "Hitomi wouldn't sport a tattoo that didn't do anything, in my opinion."

Christine says, "We'll know in a second! Coming at ya, Sky!"

She deals with a flip of the wrist, and Sky feels coldness cut into his skin.

His muscles tighten to resist the cold, of course, and the cold subsides. As soon as he relaxes, though, it's back. He tightens his limbs a little again, out of reflex, and the cold passes away.

Sky, and those near him, heard a creaking sound as he did so, like a dry door swinging.

"Well?" demands Richter. "Do I owe you five bucks, mister?"


"the mountain and the sun symbols--they have to do with truth and a faraway place," says Kaze. "...it -may- allow the bearer to see the truth although he is at a distance from the subject...."

She is looking at Voinovich.

"All right, I will try it," Voinovich affirms.

Christine hands the symbol off the back of her fingers, already swinging around to see who wants the last one.

"I see ... everything, I think," Voinovich says. "The sky is full of aircraft. There is a man emptying an ashtray into the snow."

"It's not snowing here," Richter says.

"It is where he is. Hm ... the signs are in English. There's a Yellow Cab -- I think it is New York."

"And over there, a few degrees to the right, a little girl is looking in the snow. She is, yes, she is looking for her dime. I see where it is, but she does not. She is looking in the wrong place."

"Little girl! Over there! The dime is to your left!" he says. "She does not hear me."

"You will need to learn to focus your mind," Kaze says softly but decisively. "That is a discipline of which we know much. Come with me."
She takes him to a quiet place on the farm, away from the lightning and chatter and teaches him first steps in meditation.


Belle gets a huge smile. "Golly! This is swell! Sorry about the lamp. I'll have Daddy send another...but...Gee wiz! There's electricity everywhere!

"You guys should see this!"

(Very cool about Janet's new gift!)


Janet takes a moment to listen to the chorus of animals, then slips into the hawk for a minute and dose a quick circle around then area, then switches to the cat.

Their senses are utterly different, but their focus is the same. Intense, steady activity, watchfulness, the creep into position, the strike.

Cherryblossom's meat scraps rarely offer much evasion to the strike, but it still has to be done properly.