This is part of the #MAYnia challenge run by the Hive account@freewritehouse. Today I have written 664 words. 200, or so, words were written using the following prompts
Today's Maynia prompt: shattered glass
@freewritehouse/maynia-day-eight
The Daily Freewrite prompt: spirit animal
@mariannewest/day-929-5-minute-freewrite-thursday-prompt-spirit-animal

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_{_{If you have nothing better to do you can read my previous “chapters”: _{One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven}}}
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Mindy couldn't sleep. Howard, beside her, was snoring loudly, but that wasn't what stopped her sleeping. She hadn't been sleeping properly for years. But it had got worse of late.

She carefully pulled the covers back and climbed out of bed, using the light of the screen of her phone to find her slippers and then her way to the door, where she took the dressing gown from the hook and pulled it on. She crept down the stairs, avoiding the ones that creaked the most, although she doubted Howard would hear the creak of a stair above the snores he was making.

In the kitchen she put the small light on over the cooker and made herself a cup of tea. The garden was lit by the bright moon that hung over head. A fox sat on the patio. Mindy could swear it was looking at her.

"What would be your spirit animal?" Mindy remembered asking Jenny, once.

"My what, now?" Jenny had asked, laughing. Mindy knew Jenny thought her beliefs were somewhat "off the wall".

“Your spirit animal,” Mindy said, seriously. Mindy had been very serious about spirtual matters when she was younger. “In some cultures,” she had continued in an educational lecture kind of voice. “People believe they have a spirit that guides them through journeys, and that the spirit is embodied in an animal. Usually, it is an animal in which you share certain charactersistics. Mine,” she had said, her voice full of pride. “Is an owl. It represents my wisdom.”

Jenny laughed. “Yeah, okay, oh-wise-one!”

“Mock me if you like-”

“Oh, I like. I like muchly!”

“Be serious, for once. You should be more serious about your spirituality, you know.”

“Okay, guru-owl. I’ll be more serious.”

“So what do you think your spirit animal would be?”

“Oh I don’t know… something mischievous, perhaps… a weasel, maybe.”

Mindy remembered looking long an hard at Jenny before shaking her head.

“No. Not a weasel. I think your spirit animal is a fox. You live life on the edge of society. You are cunning, somewhat sly. But you are clever. And beautiful.”

Jenny had laughed.

“If you say so. I’ve always liked foxes. I can live with a fox being my spirit animal.”

Now, standing in her kitchen a cup of tea in her hand she wondered if Jenny had sent her spirit animal to guide her somehow.

“What are you trying to tell me, I wonder?” she said out loud.

“Darling?”

Mindy jumped at the sound of Howard’s voice and swivelled around.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I woke up and you weren’t next to me. I was worried about you. You shouldn’t be up alone in the night. What if you had another one of your turns?”

“I am fine. Please, stop fussing, Howard. I just couldn’t sleep. I thought a cup of tea might help. And I’m not alone.” She turned back the window. But the fox had gone.

“Oh yes?” Howard came and slipped his hand around her waist. “I can’t see anything. You’re not seeing things now, are you?”

“It was just a fox,” Mindy said. “A beautiful fox.”

Howard peered out of the window.

“Well, he’s buggered off now.” He leaned in and kissed Mindy. “Finish your tea, and come back to bed. We have a long day ahead of us.” He turned his wrist and looked at his watch. “And we’ll have to be up again in three hours if we want to catch that train.”

“You go up. I’ll be up in a minute.”

“Just make sure you are. I won’t be able to sleep until you come back.”

“Okay.” Mindy thought it unlikely. Howard had the ability to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. She envied that ability, although she didn’t begrudge it.

She finished her tea, staring out of the window, hoping to catch sight of the fox. But the night outside was still.