“There it is,” Dad said. He pointed into the valley at the village nestled there. The brick homes were close beside each other.
Donovan stood on tip-toe to see. “How long will it take us to get there?” he asked.
“No more than an hour,” his father replied. “There’s a road. It’s overgrown but if we stay on it, the walk will be easier.”
Donovan asked, “What will we do when we get there?”
“You know what needs to be done. We’ve talked about it.”
“I’m not sure I can do it, Dad,” Donovan said.
His father stopped and knelt down. He took Donovan by the shoulders and looked him squarely in the eye. “This is important,” he said, emphasizing the last word.
“But… but… they don’t look like us. They don’t talk like us,” the boy said.
“That’s why this has to be done,” his father said. “You have what you need in your pack, right?”
Donovan unzipped it and looked inside. “Dad, I really don’t think I can,” he said again.
“C’mon,” his father said. “Let’s walk.”
They walked in silence. Donovan lagged more and more behind. The overgrown road masked his dragging feet.
“You can do this, boy,” his father said, sounding snappish.
Finally, they arrived. As they walked toward the town square, curious people peered out of windows. Some came out to follow them.
When they reached the square, both took off their packs and reached inside.
“We’ve come in friendship,” they said and extended…
Extended what? What did they pull out?
This is my response to the Unicorn Challenge. The Unicorn Challenge is the easiest (rule-wise) challenge: no more than 250 words with the photo as a prompt.
So? What do you think? Is DEI dead? Or is there hope?
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 
Very intriguing ending! Do let us know the rest of the story.
That was very good, Sally …. exciting and mysterious. This is begging for a follow up.
Sally there is always hope. The individual can still make the choice to do the right thing… DEI is really just following the Christian doctrine no matter what this administration says.
I was just talking to a friend about a totally unrelated thing to do with trees, and he said, “The rule of nature is that diversity lends stability.” I copied it down to remember it. What God laid out in the plant world and in nature surely applies to us in our dealings with each other.
Sally there is so much truth in that!!
I think they pulled out their phones and headed to google translate so they could communicate with the people who didn’t look or talk like them. DEI lives.
This is the PERFECT ending, Violet. I have to admit that I couldn’t think of what it was that would bring them together. Music? Art? Cookies? — But you nailed it. Yes, yes, yes! Communication!
There’s always hope as long as people write stories like this, Sally.
And as Violet says, ‘DEI lives…’
But you build up the tension and the uncertainty in your story so well that the ending is really open.
I’ve chosen my interpretation from ideas you’ve already expressed and from my own beliefs.
A thought-provoking story.
Ah, Jenne, I confess that I didn’t know the ending myself. I knew what I wanted it to be but I didn’t know how to get there.
When I first started, I was going to go the destructive route — so people could see the awfulness of what we are doing and what we teaching (by example) to the next generation, but I couldn’t bring myself to write it. I changed to wanting it to be hopeful but I couldn’t figure out how. I LOVE Violet’s ending.
Maybe they pulled out some brightly coloured beads ….. 💜💜💜
And the locals rolled their eyes, shook their heads, looked at each other and went home.
Tadah!! Situation decided 😄😄💜💜💜💜
I think there’s so much going on in the world just now, that it’s hard to write destructive stuff. I had a destructive end to my story too – just to try my hand at it – but I couldn’t make myself do it either. (Besides, it wouldn’t have been fair to the wolf!!)
And Violet’s right, communication is the key.
Anything except a gun or a bible.
Europeans have destroyed entire cultures all over the world with these twin weapons.
You’ve got that right!
I was thinking they should have cookies to hand out — or biscuits, as you on the other side of the pond like to call them.
And it happens that the locals also had cookies to share with the strangers. And someone had a room the strangers could sleep in overnight. The strangers and the locals treated each other with dignity and respect and all was well.
This was such an interesting read! I love how you built up the tension and left us hanging at the end—great storytelling. The message about stepping out of comfort zones really hit home. It actually got me thinking about some of my own biases while I was working on estate planning recently (not the most exciting task, but important nonetheless!). Anyway, I think there’s definitely hope for DEI if we keep having conversations like this. Great post!