Reconnecting

Jaya had come away from the end of the year with a sense of renewal, which was important after the mission disasters she had encountered during the last month of the year. It had torn at her. But the break had done her good. She had been able to recoup her losses and find herself once again . . . center herself and get back to her purpose in life. In fact, her last mission had gone flawlessly, and to celebrate, she asked Joshua and Lara to take Rachel out for the day. They had happily agreed, since Rachel considered Jaya her very best friend in the whole universe.

Together they had walked the city, stopping in at the Galaxy Diner for lunch and then to Victoria’s Tea Room for hot cocoa. She then took Rachel to McCairn’s Kids Depot where she let Rachel pick one thing for a gift. It turned out that all she’d wanted was a stuffed kitten that was orange with white socks. After that, Jaya had taken her to the park.

“Jaya, you’re like the neatest big person!” Rachel smiled. “I love you.” With that Rachel took her hand and leaned against her arm.

”I love you too, Rachel,” she smiled gently, looking into the little girl’s blue eyes. “So what should we do now? Play on the swings?” she asked.

”Yeah! And the climbing bars and slide down the slide!”

Jaya laughed. “Is there anything you don’t want to do?”

Rachel paused for a moment as if in serious contemplation, but then looked at Jaya with a big grin. “Nope!”

“I’m going to get you!” Jaya laughed as Rachel took off running toward the play ground giggling the whole time.

After well over two hours, they were both ready to get out of the cold. “How about we stop at As The Cookie Crumbles and we can take some cookies home to your parents.”

”Yay!” she smiled and clapped her hands.

But for a moment, as they walked away from the playground, she stopped and looked around for a moment. There was a feeling . . . something . . . she wasn’t sure what. But before she could do ore than take a cursory look around, Rachel looked at her with her devilish little grin once more.

”Come get me!” she laughed and took off into the trees.

Jaya laughed. “Don’t you ever get tired??”

“No!” she giggled more.

Jaya chased her into the trees and never saw the man not far away looking at her.

She chased Rachel until they came out of trees on a path that lead straight out of the park and to the bakery. Jaya smiled.

“I had a feeling you knew where you were going,” she smiled.

Rachel just smiled. “Can I get some of those cookies with the chocolate on top in the middle?” she asked.

“I think that can be arranged,” Jaya replied, holding Rachel’s hand as they crossed the street out of the park. The stuffed kitten held tightly in Rachel’s other hand.