He heard the crack echo in the late afternoon about a mile away.

His heart started racing and he

bolted into a full sprint. "It wasn't a gunshot, it wasn't a gunshot," he repeated under his

breathlessness as he continued to sprint.

It was that terrifying feeling you have as you tightly hold the covers over you with the knowledge that

there is something hiding under your bed. You want to look, but you don't at the same time. You're

frozen with fear and unable to act. That's where she found herself and she didn't know what to do

next

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.

She looked at her student wondering if she could ever get through. "You need to learn to think for

yourself," she wanted to tell him. "Your friends are holding you back and bringing you down." But

she didn't because she knew his friends were all that he had and even if that meant a life of misery,

he would never give them up.

He knew what he was supposed to do. That had been apparent from the beginning. That was what

made the choice so difficult. What he was supposed to do and what he would do were not the same.

This would have been fine if he were willing to face the inevitable consequences, but he wasn't.

The amber droplet hung from the branch, reaching fullness and ready to drop. It waited. While many

of the other droplets were satisfied to form as big as they could and release, this droplet had other

plans. It wanted to be part of history. It wanted to be remembered long after all the other droplets
had dissolved into history. So it waited for the perfect specimen to fly by to trap and capture that it

hoped would eventually be discovered hundreds of years in the future.

Sometimes that's just the way it has to be. Sure, there were probably other options, but he didn't let

them enter his mind. It was done and that was that. It was just the way it had to be.

His parents continued to question him. He didn't know what to say to them since they refused to

believe the truth. He explained again and again, and they dismissed his explanation as a figment of

his imagination. There was no way that grandpa, who had been dead for five years, could have told

him where the treasure had been hidden. Of course, it didn't help that grandpa was roaring with

laughter in the chair next to him as he tried to explain once again how he'd found it.

There are only three ways to make this work. The first is to let me take care of everything. The

second is for you to take care of everything. The third is to split everything 50 / 50. I think the last

option is the most preferable, but I'm certain it'll also mean the end of our marriage.

I'm meant to be writing at this moment. What I mean is, I'm meant to be writing something else at

this moment. The document I'm meant to be writing is, of course, open in another program on my

computer and is patiently awaiting my attention. Yet here I am plonking down senseless sentiments

in this paragraph because it's easier to do than to work on anything particularly meaningful. I am

grateful for the distraction.

There was something in the tree. It was difficult to tell from the ground, but Rachael could see

movement. She squinted her eyes and peered in the direction of the movement, trying to decipher

exactly what she had spied. The more she peered, however, the more she thought it might be a

figment of her imagination. Nothing seemed to move until the moment she began to take her eyes

off the tree. Then in the corner of her eye, she would see the movement again and begin the
process of staring again.

It's always good to bring a slower friend with you on a hike. If you happen to come across bears, the

whole group doesn't have to worry. Only the slowest in the group do. That was the lesson they were

about to learn that day.

She had come to the conclusion that you could tell a lot about a person by their ears. The way they

stuck out and the size of the earlobes could give you wonderful insights into the person. Of course,

she couldn't scientifically prove any of this, but that didn't matter to her. Before anything else, she

would size up the ears of the person she was talking to.

The wave crashed and hit the sandcastle head-on. The sandcastle began to melt under the waves

force and as the wave receded, half the sandcastle was gone. The next wave hit, not quite as

strong, but still managed to cover the remains of the sandcastle and take more of it away. The third

wave, a big one, crashed over the sandcastle completely covering and engulfing it. When it receded,

there was no trace the sandcastle ever existed and hours of hard work disappeared forever.

I inadvertently went to See's Candy last week (I was in the mall looking for phone repair), and as it

turns out, See's Candy now charges a dollar -- a full dollar -- for even the simplest of their wee

confection offerings. I bought two chocolate lollipops and two chocolate-caramel-almond things. The

total cost was four-something. I mean, the candies were tasty and all, but let's be real: A Snickers

bar is fifty cents. After this dollar-per-candy revelation, I may not find myself wandering dreamily

back into a See's Candy any time soon.

Dave found joy in the daily routine of life. He awoke at the same time, ate the same breakfast and

drove the same commute. He worked at a job that never seemed to change and he got home at 6

pm sharp every night. It was who he had been for the last ten years and he had no idea that was all
about to change.

She nervously peered over the edge. She understood in her mind that the view was supposed to be

beautiful, but all she felt was fear. There had always been something about heights that disturbed

her, and now she could feel the full force of this unease. She reluctantly crept a little closer with the

encouragement of her friends as the fear continued to build. She couldn't help but feel that

something horrible was about to happen.

It was going to rain. The weather forecast didn't say that, but the steel plate in his hip did. He had

learned over the years to trust his hip over the weatherman. It was going to rain, so he better get

outside and prepare.

The trees, therefore, must be such old and primitive techniques that they thought nothing of them,

deeming them so inconsequential that even savages like us would know of them and not be

suspicious. At that, they probably didn't have too much time after they detected us orbiting and

intending to land. And if that were true, there could be only one place where their civilization was

hidden.

She didn't understand how changed worked. When she looked at today compared to yesterday,

there was nothing that she could see that was different. Yet, when she looked at today compared to

last year, she couldn't see how anything was ever the same.