Returning from a classified military assignment, I found my five-year-old daughter kneeling on the cold floor. A strange woman stood over her, saying, “This is the only way spoiled children learn.” She didn’t know I was a special operations officer, and she was about to find out…

of fireflies dance sporadically above the tall, overgrown grass near the edge of the woods. The fading sunset had painted the Colorado sky in violent, beautiful strokes of crushed gold and bruised violet.

She shifted her weight, leaning her small, warm head against my shoulder.

For a very long time, neither of us made a sound. The crickets chirped. The continue reading …