Author: Ben

My life fell apart when I was ten — and that night will stick with me forever. It was mid-summer and Mom and Dad wanted a weekend to themselves. I was spending it with my grandparents — Dad’s parents. We’d had a good time with a quiet day — just Grandma, Grandpa, and me.

I stopped at the entrance counter, looking around and noting the guards and security cameras — just as I expected and knew would be here. The guard behind the counter looked up from his desk. “Yes? Can I help you, sir?”

Chief Elder Rubinku tumKeren, waist-long red hair braided and looped around his neck, stood by himself in the council chamber, his arms behind his back.

I know that’s overly cliched, but it was the absolute truth for both of us. I don’t recall, exactly, the very first time that I saw her. She was working at a local market as a cashier. The owner seemed to regularly rotate through pretty girls from the local school.

He sat there, staring at the page, stunned by what he saw, thinking, “But … he’s been my best friend since college. This … This can’t be right.”

Nonna Torsdottir opened her eyes to the sound of the innkeeper loudly shoving plates and mugs around, seemingly with the sole purpose of waking her. There was a sliver of early sun shining through the just-opened door to the inn.

It was going to be a typical late July day. Rather than spending the whole summer stuck in day camp, Mom and Dad had offered that I could stay most of it at my grandparents’ house.

It had been a long day for Adrian Bridges. He considered, yet again, why he’d decided to take up auditing as a career. Sure, he enjoyed the few times when he’d found that one of the his clients’ employees was messing up with the record-keeping, but he had yet to have one where he could confront someone who was obviously embezzling from their company.