Ben sniffed loudly, the invasive stench of smoke still filled the air. He could smell another odour in the evening breeze. There were so many strange smells Ben didn’t recognize. It made him shiver with a feeling he couldn’t quite identify. His momma would have told him. But his momma Read more…
Black and silver ripples coated my view as I cruised the dark waters of Okanagan Lake. The sky overhead was filled with sparkling stars that lit the night. The shore in front of me was lined with the artificial lights of humanity. I felt freedom, and exhilaration as I powered Read more…
Vaccine passports… The phrase has been bantered about for the last year or more. Some view them as a threat to their freedom. Others see them as a path to freedom. I guess it all depends on what kind of freedom people are looking for. There are those that want Read more…
Sima stood looking toward the airport in Kabul. All around the tarmac was a wall of bodies pushing forward. People pressed together in a crush of human anguish. Inside Sima, grief was raging. Her hands twitched, searching for something beyond her reach. She was in search of freedom, of something Read more…
It was gone. All of it – gone. The fire left nothing but memories and rubble Dee’s stomach sank into the pit of her toes as she stood looking down upon what was left of her home. Her entire life was in wisps of ashes and dust. There were tiny Read more…
I couldn’t believe my eyes. What I saw in front of me stunned me to the core. The mountain was lit up with an eerie red glow. Over the hills in front of us, we could see raging fire fill the sky. It filled my stomach with a queasy feeling. Read more…
Dan leaned on his shovel and watched the flames burn the slope on the other side of the highway. The fire threatened everything Dan had, it scorched his world and all he knew. The massive forest fire raged toward the town of Monte Lake and the Paxton Valley nestled in Read more…
I awoke to the acrid smell of smoke-filled skies. The air was thicker with ashes and smoke from the forest fires than it has been all year. The Okanagan Valley looked as if it was filled with a fog that smelled like a campfire. Only this fog stung the eyes. Read more…
A magical sound entered my slumber. Was I dreaming? Or was it the musical drumming of rain battering my roof and filling my eardrums with hope? It was a wonderful sound. Rain fell and soaked our drought-ridden valley. I had a sense of relief hearing the drumbeat of water falling. Read more…
The fuel dock was in sight. I throttled up and steered Serendipity toward the boathouse at the Eldorado marina. I was coming in hot. The fuel gauge read 0 percent. Suddenly the motor sputtered and then quit and I was forced to drift in faster than I wanted to. I Read more…