Chapter Twelve

It had been ten years since Madison had seen Dayton and the
young woman was full of many anxieties.

Did Dayton still love her?.  .
.
Would her daughter who was now 12 ever forgive her mother
for sending her father and young daughter into exile that many
years ago.

She reasoned it was for their benefit.  There was no other choice.
At the time there were those who sought to destroy them..  Those type
of people still existed.  The danger was still there.   She had sent her father
to look after them.  Dear Monroe he was such a treasure.  He had
been faithful all these years and had looked over her husband and
daughter to make sure no harm came there way.

She remembered with a smile how Monroe had told her he had accepted
a position as a lawman in this small town.  There had been a chuckle
or two between them.  Because Monroe loved police work.  Not
that he had done any in real life.  He had always worked in the lab.
Forensic scientist that he was.  But he had aspirations and the fit
of chief of police and forensic psychologist had been a good one.
And in that position he was able to keep a handle on Dayton and
the two girls Hannah and Lindsay.

And indeed what about Lindsay.  Her parents had been taken,
abducted actually, on a hiking trip into the mountains .   Lindsay
had been found wandering the edges of the campsite, but the whereabouts
of her parents were unknown.  When the park rangers found Lindsay she was
 emotionally traumatized and the five year old had been unable to give the
police much information, except that people had come and taken her mom and dad.
There was a cave close to the campsite where the park rangers found the little
girl.  They surmised her parents must have found it earlier and somehow the little
girl had hidden there when the trespassers had invaded their campsite.
Why the trespassers hadn't known about the five year old was a mystery and
why they hadn't searched for her was a puzzle.   It was a mystery at the time and remained
so for the last ten years.

Lindsay had come to live with Madison and Dayton and the young
five year old seemed to bond with Hannah.  In fact Hannah had a good
effect on Lindsay so when the decision was made that Hannah and Dayton
would have to disappear it was thought because of everything that had happened
that it would be a fit if Lindsay went with them also.

And so the day had come when Madison and Dayton separated and the
two girls went with their father.  Lindsay held Dayton's hand tight and the five year
old seemed to understand that Dayton, Lindsay and Hannah were to be a family and
that was they way then and that was the way it had been for the last ten years.

Madison also had left the home that Dayton and she had called home and fled to
 the mountains where the
wise desert fathers and mothers had lived long ago.

She became nondescript and became a wise abba of the dessert.  People
sought out the woman in the dessert with the lyrical voice who sang songs
of unknown lyrics but seemed to soothe the souls of those who sought her
out.

This abba was not one to talk much, but sojourners came and stayed in
one of the hermitages that surrounded the main building.  They would meet
a few times a day in the main building and Madison would sing and the
sojourners were heard to join in.  It was not hard to follow the young abba
and the voices of a few or many could be heard in the evening singing
praises to their creator.

So far her life had been non problematic.  The sojourners who came and
sought her out left no footprint when they left so it was by careful word
of mouth that she was found.  It was almost as if her followers were
guarding her by watching their own tongue and to whom they talked
to about their journey to the mountain.

Madison had been happy the last ten years.  There was a sadness to her
beauty but it only seemed to intensify the mystery that surrounded her.

When she stood in the desert and the sun was large and luminous and
firery orange in the sky her red hair which flowed down her back
seemed to  blend in witht he dessert and where her presence started
and ended seemed to have no apparent starting point.  It was
breathtaking to watch her as she raised her hands to the fullness of the
sun and she sang soft lyrical praises to her creator.

The sojourners would watch and somehow get drawn into the picture
before them.  All they had to do was close their eyes and raise their
arms in adoration and they became unpainted canvas that hung in the
cistine chapel that is how inspiring it was to the person who journeyed to
the desert and found Abba Madison.