The smell of sugar cookies washed over her as she took off her jacket. All year long just the smell of sugar cookies is enough to bring a smile to her... face. This time was not no different as a small smile crept to her lips. “Well its about time you came home.” Her mom said stepping out of the kitchen with a try of cookies in her hands. “I know how much you love decorating… what the hell happened to your face?” “Nothing mama,” Lilly said turning her head. “I caught a snowball in the nose that’s. I wanted to continue the tradition that I started with Melissa in graduate school. When the faculty was at full strength the size of our happy hour socials doubled. During our first social of the fall semester, I saw many new faces but one caught my eye. She was sitting at the far end of the table with a colleague I met last summer. Jerry waved his hand in a ‘come here’ gesture and introduced the very pretty woman sitting next to him as Nadia. ‘Nice to meet you.’ I said cordially. I sat next. I don't know. I was scared. I ran away from him and never saw him again.”She continued, “I promised God that if I didn't get pregnant, I would never have sex, or even fool around with another man who wasn't my husband. I kept that promise for a long time. I married a preacher two years later and became the perfect preacher's wife in a small Kansas town.”“And then?” he asked.“Years later, I realized that all my youthful dreams of adventure were seeping away. I sought ways to break away from my. That she had a very nicely shaped head helped a lot, butthe starkness of her skull without the hair was really beautiful. On what she thought might be the last day of her life, Valerie sent her kidsoff to school; then wrote a letter to each child. She told them she had madearrangements for them to have the house and money for a college education but,to accomplish all this, she would have to leave them and they would never seeher again. She couldn't bear to tell them that their mother was.