"The first time my son had asked me that question, I hesitated torespond. I thought "What good could come of reliving our grief?"But then I recalled h...ow the grief and loss I felt when my dad died hadbeen multiplied by the fact that everyone refused to talk about him, asif he had never existed. So I put aside my own grief, and shared with myson, and now it was a nightly ritual."Bobby, are you sure you want to hear this again? It's a sad story,remember." I know, Daddy. But I still love hearing. -----=== Five months ago ==="You shaved your beard," my co-worker Roger remarked in surprise.I was pretty sure I already knew what was happening, but I wanted to buytime to deal with it. "It was getting annoying with all this hot weatherwe've been having," I lied."Yeah, I thought the genies were supposed to have fixed global warming." It took us a century or two to screw up our atmosphere, it might takethem several years to fix it," I rejoined. I wasn't sure why I wasdefending them; I wasn't. .. that gives us; let's see ... two hours before our court time is set."Bernie made a face, wanting to kick herself for making yet another dumb mistake. But Eddie didn't appear to think anything of her ill-timed remark."So, when do you want to pick me up?" An hour and a half?" Sounds good. I should tell you, I'm a lousy tennis player." I'm no world class player either," he replied. "So, I'll see ya then."Yeah," she said, and tried to kick her behind with the heel of her left foot. Would she. She’d been given a budget and an office and told to bring in two or three reliable people to help her. She’d pulled in the three most effective people she knew in purchasing and mentally flipped off her old boss in doing so. The four of them had spent sixteen hours between meetings and phone calls finding out what was needed and where they could get it from fast. After about four hours of sleep, she’d been driven to meet a small island-hopping plane that took her and Dr. Moretti to Fisher.