Jim and Jacob Select Derek as Lilia's New Bodyguard

This is an excerpt from the newly released Common Sense: Listening to the Spirit:

"Oh," said eighteen-year-old Derek with caution. He looked from Lilia's Chief of Security and eighteen-year-old boyfriend, Jim, to Jacob, her dad, to confirm what they told him about the temperamental sixteen-year-old musical prodigy, Lilia. He hesitated while he searched for the right words, placed his hand on his chin, and respectfully offered, "She's certainly a gifted girl."

Jim smiled in relief and patted Derek's shoulder. "Nice answer Derek, I appreciate your graciousness."

At that moment, the back door slammed and the three men's heads perked up to look out the window. Jim stood up rapidly and bumped against the chair to see over Jacob's considerable height. He watched suspiciously, as Lilia dashed to the paddock to escape the vigilant security team.

As soon as she whistled for her magnificent American Saddlebred horse, King, Jim said, "Uh-oh, let's go, Derek."

Jim pushed Derek up and out of his chair to get him moving. He peeled out of the front door of the ranch house, sprinted across the drive and around the pond, through the grassy area to the paddock while Derek pounded close on his heels.

"I'll stand by the gate, so she can't get out!" Derek yelled and charged towards the gate.

"It won't do any good." Jim chuckled and gave Derek a pointed look. "I'll get the bridles. How are you with bareback?"

"Good, no problem," Derek replied quickly.

Derek stood in front of the paddock gate to block it and watched curiously, as Lilia and King circled the paddock, aimed at the fence, and sailed up over it as pretty as a picture at a riding school.

He whistled in amazement, and said to himself, "I've never seen anything like that before and without a saddle, too."

"Hurry Derek, we've probably got a fight on our hands!" Jim warned him as he roughly handed him a bridle. "Take the sorrel quarter horse over there, Derek. I'll get Rusty. Let's get crackin'!"

The two men hustled to their horses, bridled the startled beasts, and jumped up on them bareback. The horses experienced a corresponding physical response of urgency and started dancing in expectation.

Bill, the point man for Lilia's security team, hurriedly jogged around the corner of the barn about to tell Jim his news, "I see you already know that the cat's out of the bag!" He hurried to the paddock gate to open it.

Jim and Derek jumped their steeds forward and galloped at a breakneck speed down the driveway as the gravelly stones spit up in the air.

"Take the outside of the fence Derek! Go over there! Try and cut her off!" Jim yelled and pointed where he meant at the outside of the meadow fence.

Jim rode fast and low close to Rusty's neck. He held his elbows in and down to avoid the velocity of the wind and to gather more speed. Jim and Rusty galloped furiously to the back of the meadow, and then splashed through the stream faster than they usually did. It wasn't safe for Rusty, but Jim knew she was ahead of him by a couple seconds.

Jim watched as Derek urged his horse faster with his knees. Derek and his horse tore to the back of the meadow and reached it just as Lilia and King sailed up over the fence with the ease of a trained jumper.

Derek pulled hard on his reins and yelled "Whoa!"

His horse stiffened all four legs, as if he had built-in hydraulic brakes, and slid to a stop in front of King in a cloud of red earth. That move halted King in his tracks. Derek observed Lilia's movements carefully and didn't know what she would do next. King danced impatiently in the hold, and then Lilia reined him to the left, spun on a dime, and reversed directions. The girl and horse expertly jumped back over the fence, as if flying was a normal everyday activity. They burst forth with the speed of a car.

Jim gained on her as she and King jumped the stream in an effort to escape. As Lilia and King landed on the other side, Derek watched in amazement as Jim rode expertly up to the astonishing equestrian team, slid to a harsh stop without losing his seat, and yanked her right off her horse onto his. Lilia shoved Jim in a belligerent rebellion and they both fell off Rusty in a heap to the ground.

"Huh!" Jim grunted as he felt the impact of the unexpected fall.

Derek jumped off his horse, hoisted himself over the fence, and ran as quickly as he could to the crash site.

"Are you both all right?" He questioned them with alarm.

"I think so," Lilia moaned in a small voice. She gazed up at another face framed in the sky behind Jim and asked in a shallow contrite voice, "Are you my new bodyguard?"

"Yes," he said shyly and looked down at her with care, "I'm Derek." He wondered about her temperament, since she had been so wild before and now seemed introspective.

"Hi Derek," said Lilia as she tried not to embarrass herself further. She said in an apologetic and still manner, ""I'm not always this wild."

Jim chuckled, and said, "No, you're not always this wild."