Ronan was not home to stop this lady from touching or taking or eating whatever he had made in the long barn, and even if Opal was strong enough to stop her, Opal was meant to be secret. Then the lady left the farmhouse and began to explore the garage and the other outbuildings.Īs she got close to the long barn, Opal’s anxiety growled higher and higher. Her face did not seem to have an expression on it, but eventually, she told the portrait, “Damn you.” That was a swear that Opal was also not supposed to say (but sometimes did, over and over again, to the sleeping cows, at a whisper, to see if the shock would wake them). To Opal’s relief, the lady did not eat anything, but she did sit on the edge of the bed and look at the framed portrait of Ronan’s father and mother for a long time. The lady went to Aurora’s room where Opal was not allowed to eat anything, and she opened all the drawers and looked in all the boxes. She wished Ronan and Adam would come back, but they did not come back. Opal was filled with the anxiety that came from feeling she was meant to be preventing the lady from looking, but also with the anxiety that she was not meant to be seen. She took her time with it before moving to the next room.

Opal did not know what it said because she had not learned to read and was not interested, but the lady seemed very interested.

The lady clicked the mouse several times and then paged through the notebook filled with his handwriting that he used as a mouse pad. She lingered at the computer where Ronan had been doing much of his work those days when he was not driving his car in big muddy circles in the flat rear field. The lady took her time journeying through the halls, looking at photographs on the walls and opening drawers. This was the first person Opal had met beside Ronan who shared both. She was not all dreamstuff - in fact, she seemed to be very little dreamstuff. To her surprise, once she was close, she could feel that this lady had dreamstuff in her. She could not go as fast as she liked because hooves were noisy on the wood floor, so she had to drop to her hands and knees to crawl. The lady stepped inside and Opal hurried to follow her.

Opal a raven cycle story