The sun was already warming the sand and the picnic table as Jack, Hilda and Emily finished their breakfast. Less than an hour later they were buying their tickets for the hydrofoil ferry to Manhattan.
Jack pulled out his phone. “I’m sending these photos from Ted to you two. We should memorize their faces. If our paths cross, we need to spot them first.” Continue reading
Emily awoke with the rising sun burning into her eyes. She had forgotten to pull the shades. She leaped out of bed and looked out the window. The sea rippled with occasional white caps as it rolled up against the long line of white sand. The beach was almost deserted, except for one jogger, and a dozen sea gulls dive-bombing a torn garbage bag. Continue reading
MV Cape Henlopen eased into the mooring at Cape May with only a slight bump. Emily, Hilda and Jack wheeled their bicycles down the ramp and soon were riding up Route 9. Between the commercial centers, the land was mostly sand and pine trees, with stretches of wetlands among the neighborhoods. Continue reading
Emily and Hilda draped their tents over a railing while they ate their muesli and yoghurt. The sun had climbed above the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and was creating ground fog as it warmed the wetlands around the campground. Continue reading
Emily and Hilda stood in the sunshine outside the store in White Hall. They finished their Magnum Dove Bars, put the wrappers in the trash, and took swigs from their bike bottles. Hilda swung smoothly onto her bicycle throwing her right leg over the saddle and coasted to a halt to watch Emily put her leg over her top tube and slide to a position straddling her bike. With some wobbling, she got rolling and picked up speed. Hilda waved her on and rode up alongside as they headed back toward Charlottesville on the TransAmerica Trail. Continue reading
Friday evening, Hilda rode to Brandywine Drive. The flowers and bright green leaves were reaching their peak in the heat of the late spring. Soon, just crossing town like this would be a sweaty affair, even with the shady tree cover of the Greenbrier neighborhood. Continue reading
Hilda switched on Channel 29 News while the coffeemaker gurgled on the counter top. She didn’t watch much TV, but she would rather let Dave Rogers tell her what the weather would be than look it up on her computer. She assembled a three-egg omelette as the commercials droned on. She was not really paying attention, but she noticed that the commercial had been interrupted for breaking news. Continue reading
