A Walk In the Park
an excerpt

NaNoWriMo 2007

A Walk in the Park

Chapter 1

It was a perfect autumn day – clear, crisp, with a startling blue sky containing just a few fluffy white clouds, and the leaves in Central Park just starting to change color. Jacket weather, just the way I like it; not too hot, not too cold. I’d decided to change my usual route to work, and walk across the Park in order to enjoy the beautiful weather for a while longer before I closed myself into my windowless little office to work on my latest programming project. I loved being able to immerse myself in the logic of programming language, but I have to admit, it’s not a job that enables me to enjoy the glories of nature on a regular basis.

I’d just passed the fountain when a blue Frisbee came sailing between a couple of trees, directly toward my face. I caught it just as a large golden retriever came running up the path after it. He was very well-behaved, and didn’t jump up on me to try to get to his Frisbee, but just bounced around in front of me, obviously wanting me to throw the toy so he could chase after it some more. I looked around for his owner, but didn’t see anyone running after him, so decided to enjoy myself for a while until his owner caught up with him. I shook the Frisbee in front of his nose, and said “Is this what you want, boy? You want this?” teasing him. He got even more energetic, jumping up and down, wagging his tail like mad. I threw the Frisbee hard out toward the clear area. Or at least, that’s what I intended, but a breeze must have caught it, because it suddenly curved away from the center of the field, and started slanting toward the duck pond. I didn’t want the dog to take to the water to retrieve it, so I started running after the Frisbee, trying to catch it before it could go into the water. The Frisbee was slowing down as it slanted closer and closer to the ground, and I was gaining on it. It started to come down within reach of my straining hand just as I entered the stand of trees near the pond, and I suddenly realized that the dog wasn’t following me. The Frisbee came down just far enough, and I automatically reached out to grasp it as I turned to see where the dog was… and the dog wasn’t there. And neither was the park.

I froze, still clutching the plastic toy, gawping at my surroundings like any of the small-town tourists who flooded New York every summer. It had been a very long time, but I knew exactly where I was. I opened my mouth to curse, but no words strong enough came immediately to mind, so I closed my mouth again.

“Cat got your tongue, Rhoswen?” I turned, and there she was, in all her glory – Ainé, one of the queens of the Tuatha dé Danann, tall, magnificent, red-haired, and surrounded by light, as if it seeped from her very pores. And obviously pissed off.

“Hi, Mom. Call me Rosie, okay?”