" Well they won't get one today," I told her firmly, "however I'm willing to pay for a drink or two at a local bar for those here on the ground, befor...e you load them back up and take them home. I'm certain that Lord Barnabas will be happy to see them back." He will," Elsa said with a grin, "and he'll be happy to hear that you're still alive. So is anyone going to tell me what happened here?"I told her the short version then and there so we could get things moving, with the promise to tell all. She reminded me of that crazy nun in high school who was mad at me for no apparent reason.She was jealous of her sisters. That was it. I started to continue to walk away, thought it best to kind of remove myself but she grabbed me, threw me down on the bed flat on my back nearly picking me off the floor. The springs in that old war surplus frame really groaned, “Sproing”. This was yet another crazy ritual I thought.“OOOF.” I hit with a thud. She wasn’t explaining what she was doing and I was. “Are you quite done, Princess Tzali?”Ali felt a tiny chink in the hardened crystal armor she had thrown around her heart. But hearing those two words, Princess and Tzali, merged together. It wasn’t using the same tone of voice Abby had used. It was cold and clinical and tightly controlled. But it was still what he had called her. The first time she had met him, he had called her Princess. The bleedoff from his mind had filled that single word with a complex haze of complexity that had flavored. Frank and Kasuma showed up the Monday following the ambush at his house. I had a chance to talk with her about her degree in Native American History and her book about the Arapaho. Every time I talked to her, I was more impressed. She’s an incredible lady whose wisdom goes far beyond academic knowledge. She eagerly encouraged me to pursue my interest in cultural anthropology, and she promised to do whatever she could to help me along the way. In fact, she invited me to come out and look over.