Randa

Many thanks to:

Carrie with
www.cheekycovers.com
who made the process of taking my photo of Randa and creating a beautiful cover seamless.

Marina and Jason at
http://www.polgarusstudio.com/
who formatted both my eBook and my print book.

Sherry Swartzlander Healey for her invaluable feedback on my book descriptions.

Ross Burkhart for his endless patience, delightful humor, and fresh insight each time I asked his advice and opinions.

Moving quickly through the bustling crowd at Tulsa International Airport, the boy’s elegant, statuesque mother grips his hand, pulling eight-year old John along the lengthy corridor. Finally coming to a stop, they wait for their luggage to arrive on the carousel. John takes a moment to relax and glances around the airport terminal. Feeling an odd sense of wonderment, he turns, and at once, he sees why. She is standing only a few feet away from him. The girl’s angelic beauty and simple innocence captivates John. He surmises that she must be a couple of years younger than he is. Her dark, cascading curls shimmer against her delicate, ivory colored skin. Their eyes meet and the boy instantly becomes mesmerized by her. John wiggles his hand out of his mother’s grip and he starts walking toward the girl. As he draws closer to her, John senses that he already knows her, but to his knowledge, they have never met. He looks deeply into the richness that her chocolaty eyes radiate. He gasps as he catches a glimpse of her beautiful soul, so gentle and kind.

The boy begins to feel as if he is immersed in a warm, glowing love that is springing from her tender heart. The little girl reaches out, grabbing John’s hand. The moment their hands touch, John immediately feels weak and he begins to see a vision of the future. He sees that the girl has grown into a stunning and magnificent woman and he himself has matured into a strong, handsome man. She is taking a bubble bath in a claw foot bathtub and he is washing her long, flowing hair. While gently massaging her head, shampoo bubbles fall onto her nose. They both laugh and he wipes them off. Her silky hair glides between his thick, calloused fingers as he rinses the conditioner out of it. After turning off the faucet, he blots the excess water from her hair with the thick, plush towel. Picking a fresh lily out of the vase and snipping off its end, John puts the flower behind her ear, so that the pink leaves frame the left side of her luminous face. Bending over, he affectionately kisses her on the forehead. In turn, she looks up at him beaming with pure joy and profound love on her face.

Feeling a tug on his arm, John is suddenly jerked back into reality.

“Why did you wander away from me?” his mother asks in a worried voice. “It’s time to go home. I have our luggage now.”

Realizing that this is goodbye, John turns loose of the girl’s hand. Looks of confusion and then sadness cross her face. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his Thunderegg. It is broken into two separate pieces, which fit together perfectly. He picks up the slightly larger half and presses it into the little girl’s palm gently closing her fingers over it. Her face lights up in delight! John turns to go, but he never takes his eyes off hers as he walks away. Her adorable smile fades when he disappears into the throng of people, but she continues to clutch the token gift tightly in her small hand.

According to Greek Mythology…

Once upon a time, it was believed

Three goddesses controlled human destiny

They were called The Fates

And they foretold everyone’s dates.

Clotho spins the thread of life

And we are born

Lachesis chooses our lot in life

And measures off how long each of us live

Atropos wields her shears and

Cuts our thread of life and we die.

They watched the two children.

Totally incredulous, Clotho asked, “Why are we seeing this?”

Atropos responded, “Because John has the Thunderegg.”

“It will simply never be,” Lachesis stated.

“Tis not their destiny,” replied Atropos.

“Foxy, Foxy!” John came bursting in breathlessly through the heavy wooden barn doors and almost ran into the green John Deere tractor.

“Whoa Johnny Boy, you came blazing in here like your britches are on fire!” Fox laughed as he grabbed the last square bale of hay in the stack and loaded it onto the flatbed trailer. Taking off his gloves, he leaned over and gave the boy a big hug.

“Fox! There was this girl!” John said almost yelling in excitement.

“Oh no! I’ve warned you about girls Johnny Boy,” Fox said winking teasingly at John.

“You always just say that girls are T-R-O-U-B-L-E.”

“It’s because they are! They create trouble, they stir up trouble, they cause trouble, and they usually drag us innocent males into trouble too!”

Fox and Buck, John’s dad, had been the best of friends for many years. When Buck purchased the ranch, he offered Fox the foreman position. Fox enthusiastically accepted the proposition. He was happy to get a hiatus from the North Slope and eager to get back to Oklahoma. Buck was in Alaska running his oilfield company most of the time, so John spent countless hours with Fox, becoming very close to him while he tended to the enormous herd of Stainnes Angus cattle and completed other chores on the vast ranch. John loved it when Fox would regale him with stories about adventures in his life, though he was never sure which ones really happened and which ones Fox concocted purely for his entertainment.

“But Foxy, this girl was just, just…she was just a doll,” John said as his twinkling blue eyes shone brightly. “A baby doll,” John continued as he lowered his head and studied the heavy stitching on his worn cowboy boots.

“Oh?” Fox asked with much interest.

“Something happened when she grabbed my hand.”

“She grabbed your hand? You didn’t tell me that Johnny.”

“Yes, she took my hand and I saw us as grown-ups,” John continued.

Fox raised an eyebrow and listened intently as John explained what he had perceived. Fox marveled at the boy’s colorful imagination. John did not usually make up stories. Even though he had always been a playful child full of laughter, John was very much an ‘old soul.’

“I see,” Fox simply stated when John finished his story.

Hours later, Fox heard the bell ringing and yelled at John, who was down in the pasture at the pond fishing. “Dinner’s ready.”

Fox customarily ate dinner with John and Claire. Even though he lived in a smaller home on the ranch, Claire relied on him to be the ‘man around the house,’ since Buck was home infrequently and in return, Fox enjoyed Claire’s home cooking. They had mutual respect for each other and regarded each other as family.

Fox and John dusted off their clothes and washed their hands. They sat down at the dining room table as Claire placed the golden fried chicken, steaming mashed potatoes and rich cream gravy, buttered corn on the cob, hot dinner rolls, and sweetened iced tea on the table before them.

Claire asked, “John will you say grace?” as she sat down.

John began, “Dear God, thank you for today and for keeping us safe on the plane. Thank you for my mom and my dad and Foxy and please watch over them. Thank you for the fish that I caught. Thank you for this food and thank you for Baby Doll. Amen.”

Claire and Fox both said, “Amen.”

Claire looked over at Fox who just smiled at her. John was haphazardly filling his plate. Claire reminded him to slow down and to pass the food.

“But I’m starving!”

“Who is Baby Doll?” Claire asked him.

Fox chuckled and looked at John and waited for his reply.

“Momma, she was that girl at the airport.” He eagerly recounted what had happened.

“Is her name Baby Doll?” Claire asked.

“No, that’s just what she reminded me of, a sweet, precious baby doll, so that’s what I’ve named her, since I don’t know her real name.”

“I gave her one of my Thunderegg halves,” John continued.

Claire listened with great curiosity, but responded nonchalantly, “Oh? How come John?”

“I hope you don’t mind Momma. I just wanted her to have it.”

“Certainly John, it’s yours to do what you want with it.”

“Don’t worry. I am keeping my half forever because one day Baby Doll and I will meet again and we can put the halves back together to make the Thunderegg whole again,” John stated with certainty.

“What’s a Thunderegg?” Fox asked.

John took his half of the egg out of his pocket and handed it to Fox. He looked at the small rock-like piece, which had obviously fossilized. There was a good size hole in the center of it and the shell was approximately a centimeter wide and white in color. It had an oval shape and the exterior was rough and yellow, gold, bronze and white in color. The edges where it had broken in half were not sharp, but rather smooth. Fox could imagine the other half sliding right up against it.

Claire began sharing what the shopkeeper in Anchorage explained to them before they purchased the Thunderegg. “It’s an agatized Thunderegg from Haida Gwaii also known as Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada. The Haida Tribe consists of natives of the west coast of North America. They have strong family values and believe that it is their responsibility to guard and preserve their homeland, which was given to them by the ‘creator’ as a blessing to be cared for and not wasted. They believe in hunting, fishing, trading and caring for their environment. The Haida also carve those famous totem poles. The Thunderbird is a legendary creature in the Haida people’s history and culture. It is considered a ‘supernatural’ bird of power and strength. So, the Thunderegg is very special.” Claire paused and looked over at John who was listening intently, even though he had already heard it once. “The egg holds a baby Thunderbird and it is enveloped in a spirit of pure love. The egg that Buck gave John was discovered broken and it is said that if the two pieces are ever separated, the paths of the two people possessing the halves will be locked in a bond that will never be broken and the spirit of love will unite them in the future,” Claire continued.

“That’s why I gave one half of it to Baby Doll, so that our paths are locked and we will have a bond that will never be broken,” John chimed in.

Claire and Fox exchanged smiles. They didn’t know if John understood what he was talking about, but they were very amused by his gentle sincerity.

“Mama, did you see what that boy gave to me?” Randa asked.

“No, what boy?” came the reply.

“The boy at the airport,” Randa said as she proceeded to pull out the half of the Thunderegg from her pocket. “See.”

Randa’s mom picked it up and looked at it carefully not knowing what it was. She handed it back to Randa. “Hmmm. That was very nice of him. What are you going to do with it?”

“I’m going to keep it forever or at least until I see him again!”

“What makes you think that you will see him again?”

“Mama, I just
know
,” Randa replied.

“Okay,” Randa’s mom smiled. “I have a little wooden box that you can put it in to keep it safe if you would like.”

“Oh yes Mama! That way when I do give it back to him, he will know that I took such good care of it, just like I do my dolls.”

Her mom left the room, returned in a few minutes with the small wooden box, and handed it to Randa. She opened the lid. There was a small, folded piece of paper lying in the bottom of it. Randa reached for it, opened it, and read it aloud, “Don’t give up on me. Ever.”

Her mom looked at it and shrugged. “I don’t know where that came from.”

“I’m going to keep it too,” Randa said as she folded the piece of paper back in half and placed it in the box. She then put the half of the Thunderegg on top of it, shut the lid, and placed it on top her oak nightstand.

Buck slammed the phone down in extreme disbelief. It just couldn’t be true. He thought that his personal life would always be as easy to control as his business and employees always were. As the owner and hands-on manager of Northern Solutions, his commitment to quality and service was unparalleled to any of his competitors. His company’s reputation preceded them and that was more important than anything to Buck. Located 400 miles north of Fairbanks on Alaska’s North Slope, his company specialized in ice road construction and rig moving services in the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. Buck started his company with simply a brilliant idea.

After graduating from high school, Buck was offered a job building Dalton Highway, which would be providing access to the new 800 mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline that was being constructed from Valdez, Alaska to Prudhoe Bay in the 1970’s. While witnessing problems they were having with the first ice roads being built, Buck spent weeks designing and then fabricating a piece of metal with attached tiers which connected to the water trucks quite easily and would distribute different amounts of water according to the various needs. Upon perfection, word spread like wildfire across the North Slope about Buck’s invention and its ability to save companies significant amounts of money. His business was born along with a rapidly growing bank account.