Jackson rolled over and sighed. The sun beat in through the window, striking him across the eyes. He turned away from the window and toward the bedside table, where his precious Darlingtonia californica sat in her bed of sphagnum moss, waiting patiently for a wayward insect to come her way. The sunlight glistened on Darling’s spindly stalks, with their bulbous heads that reared up like swollen cobras. They were beautiful and sensual and deadly.

Now, Rich’s number one rule is no magic – and that includes curses and even innocent little tricks, but I remembered having some red stool in my younger days when I was really hooked on Indian cuisine, so the next day I marinated a big batch of chicken in Tandoori paste with a lot of extra red food coloring and baked it up for dinner.  We all pooped red bricks for two days. 

The moment I plunged into the deep, clear, and ice-cold water of the caldera, I became known to myself. The water was cathartic, an antiseptic to my wounded soul. It shocked the breath from my chest and needles of pain pierced what had been a fog surrounding my person in a protective shroud.