Her exuberant parents were dumbfound  yet flattered by Magnolia’s descriptive patent for a plaything. 

As per usual Magnolia was no shrinking violet with that visual  twinkle

that she preserved up to this ruby coloured rubicon of rubicons current stage.

 But she never mislaid that eye when it comes to an obscure concealment  and little did she grasp how important that sight in terms of university papers and other hurdles including those around the corner would be of such enormous benefit.

Yes, she had candles especially the earmarked and esteemed, scoop, centrepiece called Milestone, as they were part of that  childhood pantheon along with her authentic down the time line misty lane fixation  with light and associated items, rocks and their evolving intricate shape and treasure glistened seams.

Those who were admitted to  Magnolia’s secret sanctum  commented on her  jealous attempts to conserve her rug rat relish,  scientific  pursuits  and links to a very complex persona that drifted as nebulous perfumed  haze  into womanhood but still clasping  at an early juncture bulwark.

To a certain extent anyhow but the more beguiling items  hoarded by Magnolia had the status of deep red vitreous silicate garnet aggregation. 

The above pearlescent  observations were a velvet mood sideshow to the gusts so turbulent  and the conditions were becoming more treacherous especially for motorists and  road users.

One mustn’t forget  fridges and putting things in fridges and their workings.

Even now it was a favourite ploy of hers to go down to a  normally amply stocked fridge at night only to find a nutritious snack or two with her mischievous grin to match.

And she always checked the date.

They nearly always were within recommended  limits.

“This has been a tumultuous day for me and the urge to celebrate a most unlikely result with gaiety and laughter now ebbing somewhat.”

The phone rang but a disoriented Magnolia couldn’t reach it in time.

Strangely enough the lights flicker and oh no.

Cast into darkness while she endeavours  to pinpoint various objects without illumination.

This was an abrupt challenge  with no guarantee of lenient assessment or benefit marks.

At least during daylight hours one could see.

“ I’m the one who forgot to answer the crystallography question and it’s accent on, well bias on coordinates to determine shape and orientation and sense of direction.

I move by sense of touch and my mineral axis  lecture notes  now to navigate my own dwelling.

Just think what my score would have been like if ….

Magnolia now cast into

a pitch-dark  abyss and her imagination set in train …. an odd expression as she heard a train as it flies past her city residence.

Another retrospective  glance on her early years and the various journeys she had with her parents.

Including the  long distance treks  and the pitfalls and hazards posed.

“Ah, those paradoxical candles and so  sphinxlike, the conspicuous  one I have always hungered for or that did whet my appetite.

Next door neighbour to brown chocolate fudge.” 

Meanwhile a drama of another kind was being enacted with regard to her parents.

They did stop on the way home to try to inform their daughter that there had been a near miss incident even accident.

However the parents home phone line was engaged.

“Our daughter was concerned about a slide she couldn’t figure out.

Just now we had our own terror of a skid and  slide.

An intrusive  slide on some oil patch that lethal death trap.

Now that’s a slide one can’t put under a microscope.”

How coincidental.

Magnolia’s parents were also contemplating  how she might  muddle along  with just the candle sticks.

And they did have some recollection of her continuing fondness for her chocolate brown candle that spitting image twin of a dessert she could sink her teeth into.

“Over the years our divine flower child’s  attachment to things that emit bright rays  and luminous in tandem with peering down a microscope and  the diametric opposites of  things nocturnal and diurnal will never diminish in my mind at least.”

One of Magnolias parents fondly mystified.

“I’d hate to breach the news about our close shave with mortality, especially as it bore  that spookish parallelism to one of her topflight geology spots she used to saunter through  when  on field trips.”

Yes, said her father but he had  a surprise for Magnolia.

With regard to her exam and a personal gift or three which she will “indulge in” was referenced by the father of Magnolia to his wife.

The lady concerned seemed stymied … another creepy  slide and their return journey which had the hallmarks of a dice with death or with life.

“Is that a candle stick I see or am I hallucinating dear …”

The husband’s ghostly giggle echoing the taut expression on his wife’s face. 

Did they, Magnolia’s parents, sense the supernatural?

The husband had things in the back booth but wouldn’t divulge.

The evening  had set in earnest in Magnolia’s home now.

“Feeling rather hungry.

Rummaging in the drawers for those  hand 

held devices.

Oh, I don’t believe my candle from my sixth birthday buried among my .. what feels like my nature notebook on geology laboratory work.

Heavens that’s the one with the sketches of slides along with the outcrops.”

Being the adventurous person that she is she swept her hands around the drawers.

And of course she found several mini torches, handheld devices from childhood.

What a lucky stroke.

There was more to follow.

Well sort of.

The phone rang vibrantly.

So it seemed.

“Think I’ll gaze into  the fridge.

Dear me, light flickering.

Just peep in the fridge.

Horrors …. nothing except an out of date health food bar.

Did I say to myself a takeaway?”

Phone still ringing.

Light goes on and off.

“Must be careful and use my sense of direction whilst processing the tips from that course whose question I forgot to answer!”

Magnolia picked up the phone only to hear recognisable chuckles from the two Ostriches.

“Just a quick word from us Ostriches to say how razor sharp your faculties were to name that slide with your watchful sound mind.

We rang at an  earlier point but that was just another speculative  SHOT IN THE DARK.”

Then the lights returned tho still with a slight waver.

Then  screeching car wheels

driving up the avenue were detected before the bosom voices alighting from the car were recognised.

“It’s my parents. 

And they have these boxes.”

They swopped embraces and kisses.

“I’ve only an out of  date bar. 

And the fridge is an unearthly void.”

Magnolia’s parents impart  their impactful  story of a slide of another type  that might be awkward  to paraphrase.

“We were so anxious about our odyssey littered with incident.”

Reassurance abounds with rapid facility as parents unfold a gift or two and some much needed foodstuffs.

“Here is a cake with some candles which I think we should all partake of now. “

And the imp in Magnolia did some rummaging in discovered aforementioned storage units.

“Here it is the  chocolate  coloured candle in a candle stick from my baby phase.

I’ll remove  it from the stick and stick it in the cake.

I’ll have a make belief bite at it as I’m ravenous.

And while I’m at it I’ll plonk that sell by date expired bar  on the cake too.

I doubt if it’ll be the death of me.”

We can celebrate under “candlesticks lit up”  that extraordinary coincidence of SLIDES and their upshot.”

Magnolia’s parents opined.

“Doesn’t that take the cake?”

Magnolia uproariously.

“With all that cake and groceries at least the fridge won’t be lonely tonight.”

Magnolia on a groan streak.

“Maybe we should LET THINGS SLIDE with another MILE-“STONE” in our lives.”

Magnolia and her parents chuckle