I had to dodge two parades and the long line of traffic because of the fair just to get home tonight. *sigh* One more day, fair-wise, and I can sleep soundly for another year. (It's the tractor pulls and demolition derbies that make it sound like someone is running a chainsaw in my front yard and they run until 10pm or so every single night.)

This weekend is cleaning weekend. Next weekend is craft show weekend. In between, I plan to write The Seventh Secret, which is currently 2599 words.

I am aiming for 45-50k, so it's coming along. Slowly, but surely.

This weekend is cleaning weekend because I really have to start thinking about bringing the plants inside, and my house is a mess. And I need to work on the craft show stuff a lot next weekend, and hopefully get all of the easy stuff finished and done with. Cleaning the house first will help with that, because I will have less clutter to think about. Or at least, that's the idea. So we'll see how well it goes.

Right at the moment, I hope to be done with The Seventh Secret by Thanksgiving at the latest. So we'll see how things work out. I am getting inklings of what happens, at least, which is good.

Here is a snippet:

"Sebastian," the boy said, with only a short hesitation. "And this is my sister, Mallie, who likes to run away." He hesitated again. "I'm--babysitting as well. But she slipped past me."

"They do that," Mark replied. Bethie was especially fond of throwing and spilling anything she could get her hands on. "Do you live around here?"

"You could say that," Sebastian said. He stood, still cradling Mallie in his arms. "I should go. I'm not supposed to be here in the first place, but--thank you, Mark, for finding and caring for my sister."

"You're welcome," Mark said. "Be careful--in the dark. Do you need a flashlight?"

Sebastian smiled. "No. I can see well enough. But thank you for the offer." He turned away, just as Mallie made a small noise--almost a hiccup--and changed.

Sebastian had been holding a little girl--now he was holding a--a little dragon.

Not a lizard, not a komodo dragon, but a real dragon. With tiny little wings.

Mark stared, too shocked to speak. He pinched himself--just in case he was dreaming, but it hurt, so that meant he wasn't dreaming at all.

Which meant--Which meant that Sebastian's little sister-- No. If Sebastian's little sister was a dragon, then what was Sebastian?

Mark backed away when Sebastian turned around. Mallie's little tail twitched.

"I--I won't tell--" he managed to whisper.

"She's only a little baby," Sebastian said softly. "She doesn't know any better."

"Like Bethie," Mark said. "S-She doesn't know any better either--she--"

Sebastian's arms tightened around his sister's sleeping form. "I have to go."

copyright 2006 Jennifer St. Clair

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