Two more in one, a little less, tomorrow to continue the two better......

***

It was dark and sudden.

The heavy clouds were pushed forward by the winds in the sky and surged forward at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the winds on the ground rolled up fine stones and dust, and whipped viciously on the faces and bodies of buildings and men; The vehicles around them picked up, and the girls on bicycles pulled up their hoods, lowered their heads, squinted their eyes, closed their mouths, and inhaled slightly.

"Dolores," one girl cried, "come and stay at my house for a while." ”

She parked her white bicycle in front of the gray porch, and the orange light came in the window facing the street, which must have been clean, warm, and a cup of hot chocolate.

"Thanks," the brunette raised her voice as the wind whistled through them and made a loud noise, "but I still want to go home first—it should be fine!" She beckoned to her friend, and jumped into her own low car with the sharpness we often see in boys.

Her friend stood under the porch and waved vigorously at her.

"You should have let Dolores come in and sit for a while," her friend's brother poked his head out of the open door, "it's going to rain soon." ”

"She must be in a hurry to go back and look after her mother," said the girl, "and her mother is forty-two weeks pregnant, and her father is on a business trip again." ”

There was a suspicious look on her brother's face, and he felt that his sister was perfunctory to him.

"Because Dolores has been babbling about it all along," the girl nudged her brother, "and the baby was like it was in her belly, so ......... In these three months...... No, ...... in the past six months"

Her brother clasped his arms and said, "How?" "He's a little nervous.

"In the past six months, you won't want to ask her out again." The girl gloated: "Her heart is already filled with her unborn brother or sister, and she can't stuff a nervous male idiot." ”

The elder brother raised his fist menacingly at his sister.

"Wipe my bike," said my sister, "and I'll tell you if the Valentine's Day gift she wants is perfume or lipstick." ”

"Deal."

***

Dolores turned. The wind was stronger, and the rest of the road was almost entirely windy, and the wind pressed down on her nose, and she felt that it was difficult to breathe.

In her car pocket. In addition to the school bag, there was a handmade dessert, a fluffy and golden sponge cake with blueberries and sour cream, and Dolores didn't use any superfluous ingredients, especially spices, even if the cookbooks didn't mention that a certain spice could cause discomfort to pregnant women and fetuses—since her mother's second pregnancy, the girl had searched all the books and materials she could find, from the library, the Internet, and the school health care doctor—the first time she bothered the health care doctor with this question. The worried and cautious attitude made the old-fashioned and honest middle-aged man mistakenly think that he had met a frizzy girl who was unexpectedly pregnant.

He'd taken on too many of these girls, and in Dolores' current high school, teachers began to popularize contraception in ninth grade, but there were always girls who had rough, selfish boyfriends, broken condoms, or ineffective birth control pills. The first time they encounter this kind of thing, they often turn to the school health care doctor instead of their parents or other elders, who want to get medicine from them so that the whole thing can be silenced as if it never happened.

He didn't expect Dolores to be one of them, Dolores was a good girl and she had a boyfriend. But she wears a "guard ring" on her finger, indicating that she will not easily throw away her first time before getting married.

Luckily, it was just a small misunderstanding, and the health care doctor gave Dolores some great advice, he had five children, and he was a good husband and father.

Today's sour cream petit cake is one of his recommendations.

A bright light flashed through the corner of the dark-haired girl's eye, and she was startled. The brakes were tightened, but the vehicle did not drive by as she expected, a cold raindrop hit her face, and she looked up at the sky, the gray-black clouds seemed to be within reach.

Rumbling thunder could be heard in the distance.

If there's anything here that doesn't please Dolores. It's probably the weather.

It's been more than seven years since the Kent family moved here, and that ...... After the incident, Mr. Kent sold the house, quit his job, and went through the formalities of withdrawing Dolores from school—for a few months, they had a very hard time, Dolores often had a fever, and he was mentally exhausted. Kent was bleeding all the time, they had no permanent place to live, no steady income, and Mr. Kent, who was busy caring for two sick people, had no energy or strength to look for a new job—until one man bought their farm, they made a small fortune, and there was much more room to choose a new home, and Mr. Kent, Mrs. Kent, and Dolores unanimously chose the farthest place from their former home.

Warm, moist, peaceful, fresh air, abundant in fresh fruits and vegetables, or, as long as you can escape that nightmare, Mary. Kent's health gradually improved and strengthened, she was able to yell at Dolores again, who was a picky eater and mischievous, and Mr. Kent found a well-paid new job, and Dolores had a gentle teacher, a kind classmate, and a close friend like a sister.

Everything was going in a good direction, and Dolores grimaced at the sky - except for June, July, August, September, October, and there was only half a year of thunderstorms to fall!

Something burst in the dry, humid air.

The stench was quickly carried away by the wind, a small crater appeared on the flat ground, the bicycle jerked violently, and the paper bag containing the cake jumped out of the net pocket and fell to the ground, the mouth of the bag cracked, and the mushroom-shaped cake rolled everywhere on the dark road.

Dolores hurriedly braked the car, but there was already a small cake crumbling under her wheels, and luckily, the teachers of the club asked them to wrap each cake today.

"Oh, shit." She muttered that the rain had begun to get heavier, and she jumped out of the car, picked up the paper bags, and threw the tumbling cakes into the paper bags one by one.

A third glowing ball floated past her only four or five paces away. The first thing it touched, a vibrant wild sunflower, exploded with a thud, the flower disc burst into flames, and Dolores could smell the burnt nuts.

More small orbs of light appeared, each the size of a fist. Float in the air and raindrops. Red and gold, bright and dazzling.

The girl stood up and threw away the cake in her hand. She tried to run away, but the little balls of light pounced on her like puppies that had found their owners, and it was strange, it was cold—Dolores thought, and she was swallowed up in the scorching light.

Martin staggered out of the weeds that covered him, his thumb in his trouser pocket.

He lowered his head and looked at his prey, the job was boring. Simply like breaking a daisy, the girl lay on her back on the black pavement, the ball lightning burned her clothes, her breasts weren't well developed, for Martin. Flat like a man, her skin was not white enough, lightning had left red scars on it, her shoes were still there, the soles were pierced with a few holes, her eyes were open, black eyes. Lifeless.

As the murderer was about to walk away, he saw something shining next to the girl's finger, he picked it up and looked at it, it was a ring with the inscription "Leave the most precious gift to the one you love most" on the front and Dolores on the reverse. Kent. He'd seen someone selling it on a shopping site, the "Ring of Guard," he muttered to himself, with a lewd smile that almost made the dead shiver, "or I can check it out." Hope you're not lying, girl. ”

The little cakes that had fallen on the pavement were quickly broken up by the pouring rain, which beat the soft eggs, flour and cream, and they scattered and rushed into the dark gutters where the sludge and filth were gathering with the cold water.

***

Dolores. At Kent's funeral, only Mr. Kent was seen.

The black-haired girl's teachers, classmates, and friends dropped white roses, the coffin sank into the dirt, and the crowd gradually dispersed, leaving only Mr. Kent standing still.

He stood until it was dark, and the cemetery was closing, and then he walked out, his legs almost no longer felt, and he wondered why he didn't fall, just as he wondered why he didn't cry until his vocal cords broke and his eyes went blind...... He staggered forward and staggered forward, and walked forward...... It's a long road, and it looks like there's never an end.

A black Maybach pulled up on the side of the road he had to pass, and as Mr. Kent passed, the blackened window fell silently, and a man, or, according to Mr. Kent's first impression, a stiff puppet looked at him from behind a hat, a mask, and a three-piece suit.

"My condolences to you." The puppet said that its voice was soft and muffled, as if the person who carved it had forgotten to open a wider mouth for him.

“…… Thank you. Mr. Kent's consciousness was still a little confused, and he nodded completely subconsciously.

"Dolores is a good boy," said the man, "she shouldn't have had to do this." ”

Tears flowed from Mr. Kent's eyes.

"I think you must be in pain," said the man, "and I understand the feeling, for I too have lost my little daughter, the only one." Although she is not a good child in the eyes of many people, she is really smart and cute...... She's done a lot of wrong things, but that's because she's too young, she's not sensible, she needs education, and I'm at fault too—I'm a useless dad, I'm poor, I'm poor, I've yelled at her, because she doesn't want to eat canned corned beef, and she threw them on the ground; Her closet was always empty, there were only a few clothes in it, and they were all made of synthetic fiber, and I couldn't even afford a pair of silk-faced ballet shoes - I never even took her to Disneyland, nor did I take her out for vacations, she had never seen the sea and the beach before she left me, and she had to help her mother with the housework, and although she was still so young at the time, she was really good, and she did well in school, the teacher said to me, She would probably be the only student in our district who could apply to a university ranked in the top 50, and she would have become a lawyer, a doctor, a politician, and in short, a big man. ”

He noticed that Mr. Kent was looking at his car in bewilderment.

"I'm rich now," the man explained, "but that was after she left me." ”

"No, no, no," the man continued, shaking his head slightly, barely discerning: "At that time, she hadn't really ...... Leave me," he said in a choked voice, and whoever it was, could clearly hear the deep pain contained in it: "She ran out, but she was alive, and I wanted to get her back, and I thought about how to punish her, really—a small punishment, a spanking or something......" He said a little incoherently, "I thought that she might suffer, and even hurt a little—I would reprimand her harshly, and make her remember the lesson—and then we could, we could live the kind of life she wanted, and she could do whatever she wanted, Buy clothes, bags, shoes, study at the best private girls' schools, go on vacation to a small island in the Caribbean...... What I couldn't give her before, I can give it now—but, I've been told she's dead, dead, you know...... How desperate I am, I want the whole world to die with me...... I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have said that, but ......"

"I understand." Mr. Kent said that when he saw his cold daughter, he also wanted to tear apart anyone who could still stand in front of him, who was still alive.

"Yes," said the man, "we are both fathers who have lost their daughters." ”

He slowly lifted a hand, which was gloved, and which he was dressed strangely in this still sweltering heat, but Mr. Kent did not notice it at all.

The hand held a white rose, the white petals still tightly wrapped in the emerald sepals.

***

Martin got his pay.

In his panty pocket, there was also a silver ring, a guard ring, the girl was not lying, he was satisfied.

In the corridor of the Tower of Babel, he almost bumped into Catherine, who was also a little wrong, she was visibly in a trance.

"Look," Martin snorted lightly and maliciously, "what's the matter with our darling?" He rubbed his fingers, and blue-white electric sparks crackled and exploded in his fingertips, "Hurt by that little bastard who doesn't know what to do again?" ”

Catherine looked at him like she was looking at a puddle of rotting shit.

"Look out for him," Martin said, his face reminding Catherine of Jack as it retracted its smile: "Don't let me take my chance." He said, "One time is enough." ”

Catherine turned and walked away.

(To be continued)

((One second to remember)