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mobile carrier, but that slows it down to T1…”
    “No mobile,” Cadarn said sadly.
    Chuck’s look of shock and dismay was as if Cadarn said he wasn’t being given water. “Well, that is something I can quickly remedy…”
    “We can manage that, thank you,” Abrennin cut in. He immediately continued to Cadarn, “we will discuss it,” with a look that meant not now. Cadarn’s mouth closed and his brows sank. Abrennin crossed his arms and didn’t uncross them until Chuck had finished his visit, accepted hugs from his sister, Haylwen, and Cadarn, and then left. The smell of his expensive cologne followed Abrennin into his office. It goaded him to keep working furiously late into the night, doing all he could to try to protect his beautiful wife and children.

Chapter 6
    Fish Wink
    Haylwen ran. Her knees hurt, her thighs chafed, her belly and boobs jiggled out of control. Stupid bras were either hideous or didn’t do anything , she thought. She hated running, and still she ran faster. The pain in her knees and thighs distracted her from thinking about how sad she felt. Moving again! I wouldn't even get to tell Kim goodbye! So she ran, and didn’t care how she looked holding her chest.
    She ran from her stupid parents telling her they were going to move again, knowing it was all her fault this time. She ran from the fear she would never have any friends. She ran away from her creepy doll, and the fact that it didn’t matter that Cadarn’s present was confiscated, it was still so much better. She couldn’t even really see where she was going, but still she ran. She left the road and took to a hiking trail.
    Maybe I’d never go back. Maybe I'd get so lost that I couldn’t go back. That would teach them. Stupid brother would probably be happier without me there. She finally slowed to a walk when she realized she really had no idea where she was. She looked back, and around. Where did the hiking trail go? Surrounded by trees, she heard water trickling nearby. This must be the woods on the other side of the old train tracks. She didn’t remember crossing train tracks. She went a bit further, then stopped where the little creek came out of a small lake. Looking back, it wasn’t really a trail, just happened to be where there were fewer bushes and ferns, where the tree leaves had collected randomly. She could be the first one who had ever been here. Struck by a feeling of loneliness that overwhelmed the last of her anger, she fell to her knees and cried.
    Something in the lake came up to investigate. As it got closer, it took the form of a giant catfish. It swam closer to where Haylwen’s tears were falling on the creek bank. It hesitated for a second, its long antennae slowly waving. Then it swam up to Haylwen and poked its head up out of the water.
    Haylwen heard the soft sound of the big fish’s head coming out of the water and sat up, her tears suddenly stopping. “Crap!” she blurted, startled.
    The fish didn’t move, just slowly waved its long antennae.
    Haylwen choked out a laugh of a sort. “Or, carp?”
    The fish just floated there. Somehow its wide mouth and whiskers made it look solemn.
    Haylwen looked back. “Um, hello?”
    Nothing. But it didn’t swim away. That’s weird , she thought. Or maybe I’ve gone crazy .
    “Sorry if I am disturbing you, Mr. Fish,” she said. Oh, for sure, she was crazy, talking to a fish. Not that she cared, at this point. Apparently, she was desperate enough for a friend that even a fish would do, never mind if it wasn’t a very attentive fish. So, she started talking. Softly, starting with how she was going to have to move and that it was her fault, somehow. Soon, she was crying, telling about all the times she had lost friends… well… kids who could have been friends if she stayed anywhere long enough. About how lonely it felt to have no friends, and how maybe it would be better if she just didn’t exist. She had never really said that out loud, never really