The Arrival

Astrid spotted the girl from a distance. She was wearing the tell-tale blue scarf they had agreed upon. Astrid watched for what seemed like a long time, long enough for the newcomer to edge into the idea that she’d been already been abandoned here in a strange place. She waited for the beginnings of panic to appear, the pavid countenance so familiar in her own brother. Both were absent in his only daughter.

That didn’t mean the rest of the dreaded family traits weren’t buried underneath the heavy brown coat and layers of who-knows-what underneath that made the young woman look somewhat like a long and slender bell with a homespun scarf wrapped around the handle. What Astrid could see of her face was classically beautiful—large dark eyes, high round cheekbones, smooth skin, full red lips. How unfair that her brother’s child be such a beauty. Well, maybe it wasn’t unfair to the girl’s mother.

When the young woman finished searching the crowds she picked up her single suitcase with purpose and headed for the ticket counter. Even with all the layers and the pull of the heavy bag she moved with liquid grace. Astrid noticed she could follow her scarf though the crowds, not just because of the intense blue, but because the top edge moved above the heads of most of the other people.

Astrid sighed and then straightened her backbone a bit more and started to follow the bobbing blue. She was terribly jostled, and delayed, while the willowy young girl continued to move away from her, past the ticket counter, continuing on. The distance between them increased. Where was the child going?

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Generated from: AWAD (from a past unknown date) - pavid (PAV-id) adjective Timid; fearful.