“The acceptance of a challenge
“The acceptance of a challengeis the first and hardest step of all.”
is the first and hardest step of all.”Viviana had no idea who had set the signal. She had walked to the shrine every day for the past four. Seeing it there yesterday, seeing its message to meet today, set her fingers tingling. She passed another sleepless night, watching the rise of the sun and the waking of the world from a perch by her window, soft linen sleeping gown wrapped cocoonlike about her legs, forehead against the leaded glass, feeling it warm as the sun rose.
Now she paced the quiet studio, once more the first to arrive. Viviana could have worked on her painting, a portrait of her mama, the woman who had taught her strength, but she knew her hands were shaking far too much to
