" So I'm the old woman of the bunch. Well, I'll just have to try to set a good example for you youngsters," Lettie giggled. Millie and I laughed too.T...ess came in soon after that and snuggled down with the rest of us. Four people in that wagon was a tight fit, but no one complained.May 8, 1845I awoke with Millie cuddled to one side of me and Tess cuddled to the other, just like always. Only, it wasn't Tess. The girl whose head was on my left shoulder was Lettie. I had an arm around Millie and. " Your ships could beat ours in only a few years." Why are you thinking like that, friend Grotto? We trade. Your ships come in and they are improved or you get the crystals to do it yourself. We have very few people to crew our ships and the people on earth are barbarians that are a danger to all of us. If your own people are here helping us then you know what is happening. They would be part of our crews. This is what it is supposed to be like in the academy. We help each other and gain by. When she returned, masks in hand, I realized what a fool I must look. I had stood there still as a statue, for quite a while. Not sure what to do with my hands or feet for that matter, I found myself shifting from foot to foot and wringing my hands. “Look,” she said, putting on her mask. It was white and sapphire blue to match her dress. The mask covered her mid-cheek and up. Only the tip of her pixie nose stuck out from beneath the mask. For the first time, I noticed that she had glittery lip. When I became pregnant by him, he told me he was going to take you away from me and I would never see you again. He had abused me mentally and physically, so when he threatened me legally, I was very afraid of him.”“Mother, I would never let that happen.”“Honey, you were a fetus. You were not going to prevent anything. Oh, Andy, you do not know what it is like to be with a cruel man. It is absolute hell for a woman. You have only known Bert and Davy, both of whom are wonderful, dear, men. That.