Received: from nobody by stodi.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from ) id 1cHdSc-0006fx-Jc for lojban-newreal@lojban.org; Thu, 15 Dec 2016 13:21:06 -0800 Received: from [104.168.110.169] (port=49063 helo=thedomesticdeals.com) by stodi.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.87) (envelope-from ) id 1cHdSX-0006f9-Al for lojban@lojban.org; Thu, 15 Dec 2016 13:21:05 -0800 Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2016 14:44:52 -0700 From: "Edward Brown" To: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1 Subject: You're Costco-$50Reward survey: Have yours this Christmas-18789065 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: <291c2c7e55fbfda4353ca10c7b6e541eeed0.18789065pc2c7e55fbfda4353ca10c7b6e541eeed.lojban@lojban.org5.3> X-Spam-Score: -0.4 (/) X-Spam_score: -0.4 X-Spam_score_int: -3 X-Spam_bar: / broken holidays

Costco-SurveyPoints

  
Get your $50-card by-participating now


You could receive your-reward by taking this-short-questionairre


Enjoying the holidays is about giving back to everyone you know
Enjoy the time with family and friends
CostcoReward - 15859853
What if the only thing I had discovered on this trip was that my grandfather was an adulterous liar In his last breaths, was he trying to tell me about the death of his adopted familyor admit to some tawdry, decadeslong affair Maybe it was both, and the truth was that by the time he was a young man hed had his family torn apart so many times he no longer knew how to have one, or to be faithful to one.

It was all just guesswork, though. I didnt know, and there was no one to ask. Anyone who might have had the answer was long dead. In less than twentyfour hours, the whole trip had become pointless. I fell into an uneasy sleep. At dawn, I woke to the sound of something in my room. Rolling over to see what it was, I bolted upright in bed. A large bird was perched on my dresser, staring me down. It had a sleek head feathered in gray and talons that clacked on the wooden dresser as it sidled back and forth along the edge, as if to get a better look at me. I stared back rigidly, wondering if this could be a dream.

I called out for my dad, and at the sound of my voice the bird launched itself off the dresser. I threw my arm across my face and rolled away, and when I peeked again it was gone, flown out the open window. My dad stumbled in, blearyeyed. Whats going on

I showed him the talon marks on the dresser and a feather that had landed on the floor. God, thats weird, he said, turning it over in his hands. Peregrines almost never come this close to humans. I thought maybe Id heard him wrong. Did you say peregrines T When it was over, my head was pounding. I closed my eyes and pushed my knuckles in to stop them from hurting, if only for a moment, and when I finally released the pressure and opened them again, a miraculous change had come over the room: There was a single ray of sun shining through the window. I got up, went to the cracked glass, and saw that it was both raining and shining outsidea bit of

meteorological weirdness whose name no one can seem to agree on. My mom, I kid you not, refers to it as orphans tears. Then I remembered what Ricky says about itthe Devils beatin his wife!and I laughed and felt a little better. Then, in the patch of quickly fading sun that fell across the room, I noticed something I hadnt before. It was a trunkor the edge of one, at leastpoking out from under the second bed. I went over and peeled back the bed sheet that hid most of it from view.

It was a big old steamer trunk latched with a giant rusting padlock. It couldnt possibly be empty, I thought. You dont lock an empty trunk. Open me! it fairly seemed to cry out. I am full of secrets! I grabbed it by the sides and pulled. It didnt move. I pulled again, harder, but it wouldnt give an inch. I wasnt sure if it was just that heavy, or if generations of accumulated moisture and dust had somehow fused it to the floor. I stood up and kicked it a few times, which seemed to jar things loose, and then I managed to move it by pulling on one side at a time, shimmying it forward the way you might move a stove or a fridge, until it had come out all the way from under the bed, leaving a trail of parenthetical scars in the floor.

I yanked on the padlock, but despite a thick encrustation of rust it seemed rock solid. I briefly considered searching for a keyit had to be here somewherebut I couldve wasted hours looking, and the lock was so decayed that I wondered if the key would even work anymore. My only option was to break it.






If you wish to be removed from these updates please tell us now
Wills Nieland > 9 Deen St New Castle De 19720-3862
No longer receive messages regarding this matter when you inform us this will update
PO Box 971, Reno, NV 89504