He holds his neck and pouts. "You think it's funny that I'm in pain like this?"

The Deer Woman stands up and looks him in the eye, holds the look for a moment, then rolls up her left sleeve. He can see a number of red welts along her upper forearm and bicep.

"The wasps do their gardening on all of us, sooner or later."

Lowering her sleeve, she steps back and turns away, but not without beckoning slightly with her other hand. "Come on. I want to show you something." Then she glides off into shadows between the high windows of the Living Church.

He looks over at the door, listening to the sound of the wasps as they descend away from its shining opaque surface. The pain of his neck seems to subside along with the buzzing of the wasps. After a moment, he decides to follow the Deer Woman.

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This has been the Fourteenth Chapter of Act Two for my ongoing #freewrite serial story.

ACT TWO CHAPTERS

Chapter One *** Chapter Two *** Chapter Three

Chapter Four*** Chapter Five*** Chapter Six

Chapter Seven*** Chapter Eight*** Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten*** Chapter Eleven*** Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Here is Chapter Fifteen.

And here is the ACT ONE Chapter List, with all of the links for Act One.

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Normally written in five minutes (okay, I added a cool sentence just now. See if you can spot it!) from the writing prompt, "Gardening" as part of the #freewrite exercise. Image is by me as well. You can view the prompt here. Be sure to pick your harvest from the other entries. Thanks to @mariannewest for creating and running this veritable hothouse of homegrown literature.

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Writing and images by Greg McCann, the author of this post and owner of this Steemit Channel. To view more of my work, please visit www.fireawaymarmot.com.