THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
        Episode 60
The clock on the wall
ticked with a steady beat.
Robert adjusted his glasses
to see the tiny cursor.
He was adding a scene to
The Robin Hood Virus.
It was book seventeen in
his long life of work.
Minnie walked in with a
stack of local newspapers.
"The gossip columns have
finally stopped," she said.
"We are no longer news,
and it feels like a gift."
Robert looked at the 6x9
dimensions on his screen.
"Being invisible is the
only way to be free, Min."
He typed a line about a
firewall that held fast.
It was a metaphor for the
life they lived in Arizona.
Virginia stopped by with
a box of surgical masks.
"The hospital is quiet,
and I am going to nap."
She collapsed on the sofa
in her wrinkled scrubs.
Dorothy followed her in,
shushing the front door.
"I have thirty tests to
grade before tomorrow."
She sat at the counter
and opened her red pen.
The house was a hive of
quiet, productive bees.
There were no lawyers and
no banks calling today.
Shirley was in the corner
finishing a new banner.
She used Photoshop to
blend the desert colors.
The Boom Lake logo was
the heart of the design.
"I want the brand to be
simple and raw," she said.
Robert watched his girl
manipulate the pixels.
"It looks like the truth,
Shirley," he told her.
Barbara called in with
a report on the sales.
"The folding container
book is a hit in Texas."
James was already there,
supervising the crane.
He was building a world
made of steel and sweat.
Minnie started the grill
for the evening feast.
The smell of the Mexican
rub was thick and spicy.
It was the scent of a
family that had survived.
They ate together in the
soft, fading twilight.
Robert looked at his four
daughters and his wife.
They were the only empire
he ever really needed.
The radical honesty had
saved them from the dark.
The jewels were gone, but
the spark was still there.
Every line he wrote was
a prayer for the future.
The saga was no longer
about the fall of a man.
It was about the rise of
a family that stood tall.
The Arizona air was very
dry and very clear tonight.
Robert finished the last
paragraph of the chapter.
He felt the peace of a
man with a clean heart.
The debt was a memory.
The work was the life.
The Towers were home, and
they were finally real.

  My books and screenplays:
 www.boomlakeproductions.com
    Turquoise Software
    solartoys@yahoo.com