Lani Walker got up from the bed in her cabin where she'd been sitting, and peeked out the window to where she had been talking with her mother. Seeing she wasn't there, Lani walked outside and looked hesitantly around the cabin, thinking perhaps Ann was still near by. When she saw she wasn't, the beautiful young daughter returned to the steps of her cabin, and sat down sadly.

Oh, why did I get so upset with her? she asked herself. It's so childish. The small young girl felt no more anger towards her mother now, realizing that Ann had only been doing what she thought right. But why couldn't Mom see that the commune wasn't the evil place she thought it was, but a haven of freedom, of happiness? She bent down and picked up a small twig between her fingers, and played with it unconsciously as her mind ran over the argument with her mother. She sat this way for a few moments, and then stood up abruptly and began walking up toward the Village.

She would apologize for the way she had shouted at her mother, but she wouldn't give in. She wouldn't go back to San Francisco. Perhaps she hadn't been completely fair, though, and she decided resolutely to visit her lonely mother more often, and to write her every chance she got. Lani thought to herself, as she walked along under the late afternoon sun beating down through the canopy of oak above her head, that that would be enough of a compromise for her mother, and if it wasn't… well, it was the most she could do!

Coming up to the front porch of the meeting hall, she saw Moses sitting with a small cat soundly asleep in his lap.

"Hey, Moses, have you seen my mother?"

Moses looked up slowly, and answered her with great precision in his voice.

"Uhh… yeah, Lani she… uhhh… she went down to the Pool, I think."