Three Word Thursday

Thanks so much Quilly for priming the pump of creative juices once again. If someone who is visiting this blog likes to write, mosey on over to Quilly’s place and join in.

This week’s words: obstrigillate; ossifragant; mariturient

Although they searched diligently, the police officers didn’t find Adam on the premises. After a load of bluster, the Sheriff and his men left. Alice turned to her mother and said, “I’ve got to figure this out.”

“Alice, you can’t go out to the Island directly. Trudy is smart enough to have someone watching you. Luke knows how to take care of himself and Adam. You need to spend some time trying to figure out what’s going on. I suggest you start with the phone and computer,” her mother said. “You don’t have much time.”

Alice’s next couple of hours were spent doing exactly as her mother had suggested. She made some phone calls and spent a lot of time websearching. By the time they sat down to dinner, she had an idea what had happened and a plan. Alice’s father Sam joined them for the evening meal. After asking a blessing and starting the food around, Sam cleared his throat. “Alice, you can’t continue to obstrigillate this boy returning to his father. Your mom has filled me in on what’s going on, and I’m concerned you’ll face kidnapping charges along with her!”

“Dad, he had cigarette burns on his back and he was terrified! I can’t just abandon him as if this was some game up to this point. I could be sending him back to some kind of situation where ossifragant injuries are the next step for him. Don’t worry, I’ve called in a few favors and by tomorrow afternoon, he’ll have enough legal protection to make it safe for him to come in,” she answered. “Do you remember Ben Carmody, from my law class?” Her parents nodded. “He’s the Assistant DA in the county where Adam’s father lives. He’s on board with this."

“What do you think happened to the little boy’s mother?” asked Alice’s mother Katie. “That’s really troubling,” Alice replied. “Ben says the family dynamics are odd. The father, Trent Tradoch, is brilliant and has designed some of the basic frameworks that keep the whole internet running. A lot of his time in the past couple of years has been spent in California, away from the family. Whenever he has been in town he has taken Adam out of school to have ‘family time’. When this occurs, Adam’s mother, Sophie, has gone out of town to ‘visit her own family.’ It doesn’t sound normal or healthy, but no one ever reported any indication that the boy was endangered. His teachers say he acts normal, although he is usually a little behind when he returns to school. Because he’s a really smart kid and catches up quickly and frankly, because Trent Tradoch is really wealthy, no one has questioned the practice."

“The obvious place to start is with her family,” remarked Sam. “I wonder if Trudy’s thought of that.” Alice agreed, “Ben says they’ve inquired along those lines thinking perhaps she took Adam with her to her family. But here’s the weird thing – her family lives in Serbia. They says when she met Trent Tradoch she was mariturient but they opposed it. She married Trent anyway and they haven’t seen her in over ten years. My personal theory is that she is dead and her body is somewhere up on the mountain where I found Adam. And, that Adam knows something about it but will never tell as long as he feels threatened.”

Katie looked at Sam with raised eyebrows. He sighed, “Yes, you’re right, Katie, I’m involved whether I want to be or not. Okay, after dinner we’ll call Luke on his cell and figure out a way for him to get Adam to safety. But he can’t bring him back here – where do you think they should go, Alice?”

Alice beamed, “that’s the beauty of law school romances that parted amicably. Ben says I can bring Adam to him and we can stay there until this is all straightened out.”

Sam looked at her, aghast, “Alice, he’s an officer of the court, as are you, may I remind you! The two of you cannot take the law into your own hands. You’ll lose your licenses and he’ll certainly lose his position as DA!”

“No dad, he’s receiving Adam as a ward of the court until the dispute is resolved. He and his wife Tricia have children in the same school that Adam attends and are pillars of the community. Ben got his favorite judge to issue the order this afternoon. I’ve already called Luke to tell him the plan.”

Sam shook his head, “I don’t know how you do it Alice, but you always outthink the opposition! You must get that from your mom.”

As they started clearing the table, Alice’s cell phone began to ring. She glanced at it and saw Luke’s cell number displayed. She answered, “this is Alice.” A young voice said, “Alice, Luke is hurt. You need to come right now.”

“Adam? Adam?” but the boy had clicked off.

---------------------------------------

The 3WT #30 words will be: your choice from previous the word list, though you must use at least three.

/kw