Ani

I caught them digging through a dumpster behind the hotel.

Good help is hard to find

Not a particularly uncommon sight that day except she had just found an egg.

A whole one.

Actually, it was the little girl who found it. Thrusting her prize in the air with statuesque triumph. The joy on their faces. I almost forgot they were knee deep in fast food, beer bottles, and butt wipes.

This was fifteen years ago… I think.

Doesn’t matter.

Back then, I did one of two things: forgot them instantly or, more likely, called Khalil and had them both bagged and shipped off to the farm.

But that little girl with the egg. That ear-to-ear grin.

I paused…

Just long enough.

And that was the day I met Ani.

My future general.

JS