The Scorpion. Part 1

In the town of Sterling City, on the 5th block east of the river that has no end, there lived a lady named Ann.  Ann loved to take walks right before the sun set every night.  She had ample time to do this as her husband had passed in the great war and her 2 beautiful children were now married and had children and lives of their own.  

On one particular night, Ann went through her daily routines.  She cooked her small portioned dinner, ate it ever so slowly on the back porch, washed and cleaned what was dirty and laced up her white, dingy walking shoes.  

Ann loved this time because Ann always talked to God.  She would ignore the looks she received from some of the passersby because she knew God was listening.  Sometimes God would talk back.  She would talk and talk to her heart's content then after awhile she would always say, "Listen to me, I've taken up all of our time with crazy talk, now it's your turn...".

Most of the time, the talks were one ended.  But after her spiel, Ann would just listen.  Now Ann was a creature of habit and she would walk the same path every evening.  There were times Ann would walk and see her footsteps from the day before and think, "maybe I should walk another path to the river that has no end.".  It was too far from familiar for her so she stuck to the same path, night after night.  

She timed her walk just right so when she reached the river that has no end, almost right on time, the sun would slowly set.  Every time Ann had a new feeling come over her.  A small tear would come to her eye and a smile would form on her lips.  Ann always had the same thing to say, but every evening the "thank you" she said meant something different.  

On this evening Ann made her regular walk, past the post office, onto the dirt road that led to the river that has no end.  She looked at her watch as she made it to the banks of the river and said "ah, right on time".  The sun began it's descent and Ann took a deep breath, closed her eyes and said, "thank you.".  She opened her eyes to take a look at the setting sun that had painted her with it's rays and suddenly something out of the right corner of her eye caught her attention.

There was a small branch that had floated down stream and snagged on the bank of the river that has no end and something was moving inside of it.  There was a struggle.  It seemed to be a small creature that had it's legs caught in the branch.  Ann stepped over to it, knelt down next to it and could now see that it was a small scorpion.