Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 Read Free

of those
people?"
    Liza scoffed in
agreement.
    Another awkward silence
hung over them until Liza asked, "So what do we do now?"
    Ross proposed, "Well,
we could always adopt."
    Liza stared at him and
said hopefully, "You’d be okay with that?”
    Ross nodded.
    Her mood fell just as
quickly as it had risen, though. “You know how hard it is to adopt.
Who knows if we’d ever be approved, and even if we were, I imagine
it could take years.”
    “It’s a chance at
least. That’s better than what they gave us at the
clinic.”
    "That's not the point!"
Liza shouted.
    "Well, what else do you
want?" Ross demanded angrily. "What else can I possibly
do?"
    Liza just shrugged and
turned to stare back out her window. Several minutes later she
said, "I really don't know."
    Ross sighed and just
kept driving.
    They drove another
twenty minutes in complete silence before Liza finally said, "There
is one thing I do want."
    Ross didn’t know how to
feel about anything just then. Exasperated by the whole scenario,
he asked, "And what is that?"
    "I want..." Liza
started, "I want a sign."
    "A sign?" Ross asked
curiously.
    "Yes! A sign!" Liza
said excitedly, with the hint of a smile gracing the corners of her
lips. "A sign of what we should we do."
    Ross glanced at his
wife long enough to send her a look as if she’d just asked him to
pick up a car or fly off into space. “A sign. Really?”
    She nodded excitedly.
Despite himself, her enthusiasm was infectious. He broke into a
broad grin himself as he prodded her, “Would you prefer a sign from
God or aliens? Or are you not too picky?”
    The tension finally
broken, she laughed and replied, “Oh whichever.”
    “From the future,
perhaps?”
    “That sounds positively
lovely, Ross.”
    Ross chuckled,
shrugged, and said, "You never really know Liza, we might just get
a sign. The real questions are where, when, and how on Earth will
we be able to tell. I think the real trick to… to signs,” he paused
to chuckle again before continuing, “is knowing how to interpret
them."
    "Well, I think you
summed it up," said Liza, eyes tired but cheerful. "We’ll never
really know, at least until we get it."
     
    It was centered a
distant way off, yet the flash of white light was so brilliant that
both Ross and Liza instinctively jerked their eyes away. Ross
slowed the car and pulled to the shoulder, knowing there wasn’t
anybody behind him and not wanting to cause an accident, but not
every driver on the road was as mindful. When his vision cleared,
he was greeted by an F250 barreling down on him and his
wife.
    Ross yanked the wheel
to the right and stepped on the accelerator. Liza screamed as her
husband drove them off the paved road and right into the forest.
Either by his keen eye or miraculous good fortune, they found a
narrow gap between trees. With the threat of a head-on collision
behind them, he slammed the brakes.
    The car skidded on
rough dirt smeared with wet autumn leaves, but ultimately halted
safely. After a few silent did-that-really-just-happen moments,
Ross let out a whoop of excitement and burst out laughing. Liza
merely exhaled a sigh of relief.
    "You okay, baby?" Ross,
still grinning, asked Liza.
    "I wish you wouldn't
call me that," she replied.
    "I'll take that as a
'yes,'" said Ross with a big grin.
    Liza scowled and
changed the subject. "What in the world was that?"
    "I have no idea," Ross
said.
    "You think we should
check it out?" Liza asked rhetorically, unbuckling her
seatbelt.
    "No," Ross replied,
which earned him a sharp look of disbelief from his wife. He went
on, "I think I should check it out."
    She rolled her eyes,
but nodded. She’d learned long ago that there wasn’t much point
arguing with her husband once he’d decided to play the role of
macho alpha male.
    Ross reached into the
glove compartment and pulled out his mace.
    After flicking off the
safety latch, he got out of the car, and paused dramatically with
the door held open.
    “Stay here," he
instructed