The Traveler

Upon his face is a hateful smile and after pointing a finger at the girl Lilly, the greasy looking man spits out a gob before he goes on to say, “The female is of no use to you now so you might as well let her go.” The wall of followers takes a step forward in showing off menacing tones when the man before him goes to speaking again.

“You and I both know this is going to end bad if you fail to come along peacefully.”

“Bad for who?”

With a wave of his hand, the man says to him, “I have over a thousand warriors at my disposal.”

“Why so many of you. Better yet, who put you up to this?”

“We are all under the guidance of Preacher Tom.”

“How about that. Any chance that your preacher Tom is nearby?”

The man gives an ugly smile. “Preacher Tom is everywhere.”

Clearly deranged, he says to the man before him, “Is there any chance you can narrow this down to a name, I mean, since we’re going there anyways, it shouldn’t matter if I know where I am going to and who knows, maybe I’ll know a shortcut that gets us there quicker.” Under pressure, the man blurts out, “Kingstown. Now, hand over the female.”

“Kingstown, you say.  Ha, that’s interesting. Listen, because you told me this, I will give you and your boys one last chance to go on about your way.”

Deep inside he knows there is no acceptance letter in the mailbox and never one to give up on that one chance of somebody turning over a new leaf, realizes this is not happening as all he gets in return is another ugly smile coupled with the show of the man’s hand signaling for the first wave to come forward. Tucked aside him, the girl Lilly moans a disparaging sound which has him having enough of being in such a predicament and willing it so, the man before him goes to swatting at what is not there before he is reduced to a pile of dust which is immediately sucked below the ground. As for the wave of followers, there is a mad rush of getting away that has the girl Lilly peeking around before she says to him, “I hope you never have to do that to me.” Letting this go, he goes to thinking he could use a cup of tea about now. Walking over to the pan set off from the warming coals, he drops to a knee and after plucking the stem from the water that is just right, he goes about filling the only cup. By this this time, the girl Lilly is standing next to him and offering up the cup to her, he hopes his added addition did not ruin the anticipated flavor.