Shuffling the deck

"I've accepted my first teaching job, over seas. Teaching English in Paris. It's weird timing, the violence, the politics, immigrants, war. Something Gram would ... I don't know exactly what Gram would say. Dad's freak'n out about it. Won't hardly talk to me." Larkin looked at Kaitlin. Since Kaitlin was technically her half-sister now, their already tight bond was tighter yet.

"When I leave, this cottage will be empty, unless Dad decides to move back. He won't though." The sugar and salt overdose was showing up. Her pivot was slipping, somewhere between depression and anxiety Larkin wished someone would just point her in the right direction. Like proper tea, she was hoping life would just stay still for awhile longer. Calypso's cottage would always be Calypso's cottage, then Larkin's cottage when she turned twenty-one. "I'll be gone a year, three months in Paris then I have to leave and re-enter the country."

Jacob's world as keeper of the water's edge was not without a keen awareness of the way boundaries were kept in other places on the Planet. "My sister has two children. Both of them live in Europe, one of them lives just outside of Paris. I remember how she zigzagged back and forth between Belgium and France for a couple years before she met her partner." The tea pot was empty, the sandwiches were eaten and the rest of the cookies would go home with Jacob. "I'll split a beer with you if you'd like, Jacob. I've never tasted your famous brew and seems a shame to leave for France and never taste  it." Caitlin didn't drink alcohol.

The drink was powerful, bitter with a warm linger to it. "Did you stir a glamour into it Jacob? A bit of magic with the hops." The man with the deeply angled gait would never lie when asked a question straight on the way Larkin put it to him. Shy again, Jacob the Surveyor simply nodded. "Nothing to hurt you in the slightest. This batch has a small memory of summer yellow. A crush of the heart of the lion mixed into the bubbling."

Larkin understood his riddle to mean a little bit of Dandelion was making its way into her. She liked the image. "A small batch of the heart of the lion is just what I need. I'll be leaving after the first of the year, before my birthday."

"There are four more bottles in there. Share them with good company, and it won't hurt to make a platter of them cheese sandwiches while you're at it." The pivot to the young woman's life would be re-positioned without a doubt. Rebellion is what keeps the human race honest. Youthful rebellion would open doors where elders might not go. Jacob approved of revolution, even as he maintained the protocol of ancient ways. "If you think of it during the drinking of those brews in the amber bottles, call me before you open that last one. Join me down at the water's edge we could share it, tell a few lies over a toast for your good voyage, call on some stories that want telling."

"That's a promise. Expect my call." Rabbit's long ears twitched for wanting to sip a little of summer's yellow. Short of that wish he repeated his request for the snip of sandwich still on the plates, and noticed an old woman watching. Tears strained to keep from falling from the woman's eyes. Rabbit offered the tips of his ears to catch the stream that would not wait. Like long thin cups ... her tears flowed into them. Thank you Rabbit the Watchful. You are very kind.

"Uranus square Uranus: On a pivot Beginning of June 2015 until mid-February 2017: The first time this influence occurs it signifies that you are no longer an adolescent and must take your position as an adult. It signifies rebellion against established standards, which is the reason so many young people go through a period of rejecting everything that they have been taught. It is necessary for you to experience your own individuality by asserting it against someone else's. There is nothing wrong in this, and the constant challenges of youth help keep society alive. It also helps you, because you need to be on your own and find your own ways of doing things, unhampered by the ways of the past, which may no longer be appropriate.Even if you do not go through an especially rebellious phase, this will still be a time of intense and rapid change, when you go out into the world and pursue your own goals without the comfort and security of doing what your elders tell you. Doing what you are told may not always have been pleasant, but it did allow you to avoid responsibility, which you will have to take on now." - A bit of horoscope for Larkin to inspire the flow of this tale