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A little after seven the next morning Kyna and Cyrus took Canadian Highway One west out of Calgary. Once safely outside the city's womb of concrete and steel, they re-entered Canada's bread basket, rolling across rich fields lying dormant under a blanket of light mist. It was late October, after allsince the time of the Druids, the season of the harvest when the earth gave up her bounty to the reaper's blade. The time when Samhain, the lord of the dead, prepared to call forth hosts of evil spirits to avenge those who had wronged them in life. The Romans called this time the Festival of Pomona, the goddess of the fruits and trees. The early Christians called it the eve of the feast of Hallowmas, or All Hallows' Eve. Later it became known as Halloween. |
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Traffic on the highway was sporadic, but they were slowed by the occasional migrating tractor or school bus. By nine o'clock the mist had burned off and the purple and white Canadian Rockies could be seen in the near distance, jutting up into the sky like the breastplates of an entire chorus of Wagnerian sopranos. After an infusion of cholesterol at a Burger King on the main highway, Kyna went to the trunk to get a heavier jacket. While rummaging through the suitcases she found Bryan's necklace. Holding it up, she was struck anew at the way the two little red stones on the end seemed to glow like the eyes of a cat. |
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Cyrus had stopped to talk to one of the locals and his laugh |
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