Lucky and the Lady with the Magical Scepter

Lucky grinned. She thought of her mother every day. The riding boots she wore day in, and day out were once worn by her mom when she was a performer in El Circo Dos Grillos, a circus troupe. This trip had been extra special. Visiting the family cemetery where her late grandparents were buried, with her parents, Jim, and Kate, gave her a new, and unique, link to her heritage. These ancestral ties were even stronger than the ones she experienced when she joined El Circo Dos Grillos, running away from home in a rage.

"Thank you for coming," she told her parents, and hugged them both excitedly.

Jim chuckled. "I wouldn't miss it for the world, sweetpea," he responded. Kate looked up briefly and continued to write in her journal. She didn't want to be bothered. Fascinated, Lucky looked over at her notebook. She was astounded to see a near-accurate illustration of the tombstone, with relevant information about the cemetery's location in San Jorge. On the opposite page, Kate had started drawing a crude family tree, trying to guess the family relations. "Hey, what'ya doing with those scribblings, that drawing, and all that?" Lifting her head, she answered an eager Lucky. It made her happy that her daughter showed an interest in what she was doing. "I'm jotting down notes about...your...our heritage." This astounded Lucky. Although she remembered giving her mom a photograph of her birth parents who left her at an orphanage, she never thought Kate would be interested in family history stuff. It didn't seem like her thing.

"Really?" she said inquisitively. "I...didn't think you'd want to do that...it seems more like something Aunt Cora would do...with her family quilt and all." Patting Lucky on the shoulder, she explained why this meant so much. She didn't want Lucky to have the wrong impression about her family history research. "It hasn't been that long since me and Jim got married...I want to do something that brings us together." She continued. "I know this is important to you, Lucky, and I want to...write a book on our shared heritage...so we don't forget what happened in the past." This made sense to Lucky. She had never thought about having a book that only focused on the history of the Prescott/Flores/Navarro family, but it sounded like a swell idea. "That means so much! Tell me how I can help." She nestled herself in Kate's arms and looked out the window, longingly, while Kate stroked her hair. She couldn't wait to tell Aunt Cora about it. While everything seemed calm at that moment, the ensuing storm about to hit them would be something no one saw coming.

Without warning, lightning crackled in the sky and hit the tracks about half a mile ahead of the train. Lucky heard the noise and found it strange as she saw no clouds in the sky or any thunder. While she knew about heat lightning from a class her mom taught in school, something about this seemed off. Even so, she saw the Miradero station up ahead and didn't think this lightning was a big deal. Whatever the phenomenon, she doubted it would stop her from getting there, and she stayed calm. Without warning, the train began floating the air. A purplish glow surrounded the whole train, with everyone on board beginning to panic, wondering what would happen to them. "Dad, what's going on?" Lucky asked, worryingly. "I...don't know...Lucky...I've never experienced anything like it." He did not know what else to say to reassure his daughter. In a big thud, the train tell onto the tracks. It skidded to a stop at the station as the frightened engineer pulled the break. As soon as the doors opened, the passengers scurried out of the train and onto the platform like jackrabbits, leaving dust in their wake, as did the train engineer.

Lucky, Jim, and Kate also exited the train, although not in such a frenzied state. Prior to leaving the platform, Lucky spied a woman in a red dress with wavy deep brown hair. She was riding a horse with a blonde mane, accompanied by two others on horses with white and dark brown manes, galloping into the distance. It's almost like they wanted to be seen, or weren't trying hard enough to be hidden. She tugged on Jim and pointed. "That's them! That's the people that did this!" Jim shook his head. He didn't want his daughter believing in illusions. "I know you are probably scared...it's a coincidence...another one of those freak storms...we've been having."