The Gossamer Gate Read Free

fairies.”
    “That’s right.” Khiara nodded, and found that she couldn’t stop. Before her impression of a bobblehead doll alarmed Cate further, she propped her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand. “The solstice is coming and that means faery mischief.”
    “Does that have anything to do with that other movie you told me to watch?”
    “Kinda-sorta.” Khiara was finally able to smile. “You don’t want one of those little critters to turn you into a donkey, do you?”
    “A donkey?”
    “Trust me – go watch the movie.”
    Cate nodded and they finished their lunch in companionable silence. As soon as they cleared the dishes and Cate went back upstairs, Khiara returned the cash register, bell in hand. To her relief, it was a busy afternoon, and the constant comings and goings of her customers kept her from dwelling on history.
    As she closed the shop at three o’clock and tallied the receipts, Cate came downstairs and announced, “I am completely and utterly screwed.”
    “It’s not that bad, is it?” Khiara asked, setting the roll of paper down on the countertop.
    “No, and I see now that I’ve been missing a lot. There’s some pretty cool stuff in those movies – fairies and elves and love triangles and evil princes. Hot stuff, but…”
    “But?” Khiara prompted, and raised her eyebrows.
    “But they still speak ye olde English.”
    “Yeah, I understand. Still….” With a smile, Khiara reached for the book and handed it to Cate. “If this Barden guy wants a second date, why don’t you try reading the prose itself sometime this weekend? No matter what you do, don’t stress about the language. Oh, and for goodness sake, please don’t lie to Barden tonight. Admit that you didn’t know anything about Shakespeare until you met him.”
    “What good will that do me?” Cate asked, still looking at the book as though it were somehow dangerous.
    “You can stroke his ego a bit by telling him, quite honestly, that he inspired you to learn more about Shakespeare,” Khiara pointed out. “He’s much more likely to appreciate that you took the time to learn about something that interests him, than he is to appreciate a lie told just to impress him.”
    “Why do you always know just how to handle things with people? You’re so damn reasonable.” Cate shoved the book in her bag and said, “And you’re still giving me homework, even though I’m a third degree student.”
    Cate’s voice faded as dizziness swept over Khiara. She felt behind her for the stool and backed onto it.
    “Well, I had better get ready for tonight .” Cate continued to chatter on blithely, her excitement at meeting a new guy having not faded at all in the light of day. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow and let you know how the date went.” With that, she left, taking her exuberance with her.
    Khiara suddenly felt very isolated, and even though it was not even dinnertime, the shop seemed darker than it should. Taking a deep breath, she told herself, “He can’t come in here. He can’t hurt me. He can’t take me.” She bowed her head.
    For almost nine years, she had rarely thought about that terrible night. She had tried so to flee from it so completely, to start a new life. Now that the anniversary was nearing, every heart-wrenching aspect of that frightening experience seemed to be closing in on her.
     
     

Chapter 2
    Khiara ran upstairs as quickly as she could, desperate for physical activity. There was one more opportunity to salvage this day – game night. Once she undressed and stepped into the shower, she found her equilibrium returning with the resumption of her usual routine. It didn’t take long to change into jeans and a fresh t-shirt, and grab her messenger bag to shove her Player’s Handbook, character sheet, and dice into it.
    The beauty of r oleplaying was that it took her to another world where she could pretend to be a completely different person without ever leaving the real world.