In the mid afternoon sun, Daphne walked, shoulders obviously sulking, though the mostly empty field behind Potter’s Ranch. She was flanked by several trees which were scattered throughout the valley and appeared to be standing guard for intruders like herself. The field sloped up relatively gently on both sides to a hill, meeting in the middle to form a small drainage channel, which she now walked along. There was no water flowing today, it hadn’t rained in weeks, but she liked to look at the rocks collected in pools. To the northeast, a several hundred foot wide rock face stood tall and immovable. It looked as though it’d been there for all of time.

The golden grasses brushing against her feet danced in the breeze and after a while it pissed her off how elegant and oblivious the grass seemed. As if it held absolutely no regard, and no care.

She walked slowly, taking her time. Some would challenge if you could even call it a walk. She found hersef tracking to the far end of the field near the big, ugly, gray wall. There was a pile of several dozen boulders strewn about at the base, and there were even a few kids there today, several dressed in bright colors, and a handful showing off their muscular torsos. Their chatter had been making it’s quiet echo down to her the past few minutes.

After walking for the better part of an hour, she stayed a few hundred yards away, out of courtesy to the group of kids that’d beat her here and claimed the spot. She instead found a spot next to an older looking tree, and plopped herself against it’s trunk.

A sigh let itself go, and she replaced it with a deep breath in. “Hey kiddo” she said aloud, to the open air between her and the group of kids at the wall, some thousand plus feet away. She was careful not to say it too loudly, hearing how clearly their voices carried back toward her. They were talking about the route, and about a girl named Valery Vaughn. She was sure that Jacob used to do the same. She wasn’t as sure, but didn’t think it impossible that he might have once climbed with that very group.

There Daphne sat for at least half an hour, though she never watched the time out here, only the sunset cast against the wall from over her shoulder. She stood to leave, and noticed she’d been spotted by a couple of the kids, some of them now beginning to pack up their things for the evening trek down the valley. She turned to face them exactly, and called out as clearly as she could “You kids be safe up there!”

A few hands shot up to acknowledge and wave the woman thanks for the concern.

****

**The breeze, which had previously been singing and laughing at her through the grasses, felt like it stalled for a moment, and then gave a drawn out sigh of it’s own. Daphne heard it as “Hey Mom”. **