Echo

refer to as eating . I cannot survive without it. Otherwise, I must return to the Womb in the woods.”
    “Ok, Echo, I have an idea. Tomorrow is Saturday. We’ll all be home. Scotty and I are going to build you a private tree house. You can get the exposure to the sun that you need without anyone spotting you. Can you climb a tree?” The golden auras swirled and then stopped. Before anyone could speak, Echo broke away from Barney, ran to the living room wall and placed one foot in front of the other as she climbed, walking upside down across the ceiling with her head swiveling to watch them and walked back down the opposite wall. Wobbling over to Barney, she pulled herself up, plopped down on his back and curled up. Speechless, Scotty, Abby and Jose just stared.
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    “Well, I guess she showed us. Okay then.” Abby laughed. And it felt good. Many questions remained unanswered but she felt giddy with the new possibilities. Could it really be true that she might be healthy now? Glancing over at Jose, who was planning the treehouse with Scotty, she gave him a long pensive appraisal. He certainly took the reins here. It made her feel secure. Her face flushed with other thoughts. Was she completely oblivious or what? Things might be looking up a lot more than anyone expected.
    Abby said goodnight, pleading exhaustion. At their quick questioning looks, she reassured them that she felt great. She just wanted some time to be alone. She needed to think about so much. This will dramatically change how she thought about herself and her life. And she needed to think about the loss of her mother. She pressed her hand to her stomach, her emotions in a free-for-all. She needed to take time to say goodbye to her mom in private and have a healing cry.
    She pushed back the small seed of bitterness that surfaced. With all of this mystical healing stuff, how come it wasn’t used to save Mom? Irrationally, she refused to admit they didn’t know of her mother’s accident until it was too late. Gee, wouldn’t Mom be happy to see me cured? As she shut the door to her bedroom, she sighed mournfully, realizing the old adage is correct. Timing is everything.
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    Back in the living room, hilarity sounded as Jose collected his tools for the treehouse. Echo steered Barney over to the toolbox so she could examine them. Taking them from the toolbox, she lined them up in the hopes of discovering their purpose. Picking up the hammer, she remembered why it looked familiar. Brother’s two humans; Sister Netty and Brother Wil.
    Now that Echo no longer worried about her loneliness, they completely slipped from her mind. She remembered watching Brother Wil from the woods. He often used this primitive tool called a hammer. Echo wondered why Brother had not called on the Womb to make their lives better. Did Brother forget who he was? And now Brother Jose planned to use the same tool. Perhaps Echo should show him the easy way. Well, maybe she should first see what he planned to use the tool for. Echo remembered that sometimes, when she volunteers information, someone gets upset. Sister Abby clearly needs a little looking after, she sure gets upset easily. I better keep an eye on her . She refused to let any trauma or upset come to her new family. Fam-i-ly . She decided she liked the way the word sounded.
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    Studying Echo, Jose wondered what the rascal was up too. She obviously didn’t know what to make of his tools. Well, tomorrow he and Scotty will show her a thing or two. They would have her treehouse up in no time. Motioning over to Scotty, they decided to sit at the table and draw some rough plans. As they sketched, Jose filled Scotty in about Tomas, Kelly and Armoni.
    “The news is not good, kiddo, Armoni pulled a knife on me while I confronted Tomas. Armoni’s quite the knife freak. I didn’t get inside, but while I knocked at the door I could hear some girl screaming for help. I had Kelly and Armoni in my eyesight, so it wasn’t them. God knows what freaky stuff happened in there. I got out of there while the getting was good. I gave the cops a quick call; concerned citizen and all. Hope they were able to get in. Tomas will know it was me that called. We’ve got to be ultra-careful. I’m afraid to leave Echo alone during the day. I think we’re going to have to invest in a good security system. Hope we can swing it.”
    “By the way, Mama Diaz and the girls did not move in with Tomas. He said Armoni put his foot down. Mama