0 March Secret Agent #3

TITLE: Nowhere To Go But Everywhere
GENRE: Women's Fiction

God, this was stupid. Scarlett? Melanie? Who would want to be like either one of them? In a few months, astronauts would walk on the moon but the Daughters of the South, clearly still inhabitants of the previous century, wanted Rose to describe which Gone with the Wind character she most resembled. With her dream of college dependent on their scholarship money, she needed to act like she cared about their asinine topic just as much as they did, but so far, she hadn’t come up with one sentence worth keeping. Crafting a witty comparison to Belle Watling, the heart-of-gold whorehouse madam, crossed her mind, but she dismissed it; the Daughters weren’t about to reward a smart ass.

Outside, dawn was painting with a palette of pink spun sugar. A much better view than the blank paper staring back at her from her portable Underwood. She rationalized a walk by the water might help to resolve her Scarlett/Melanie dilemma, or at the very least, provide some photographs for the album she planned to put together for her sister. Tonight, Lily would be crowned Biloxi’s new Shrimp Queen and sunrise on the Gulf would make the perfect opening shot. Rose pushed up from her chair and grabbed her Nikon Rangefinder.

When she arrived at the beach, she kicked off her sandals and dug her toes into the damp, cool sand. As much as she was counting the days until she moved away from here, she knew she’d miss this.