* * *Something infinitesimal, but yet overwhelming had changed in her. Gabriel could seeit even in the way she placed a glass on the table, or put on ...a shawl. Mostly it was in theway she walked around the house. It wasn’t the same walk. It was a glide.And he noticed she glowed. So much so that he would think she had conceived, but heknew that wasn’t possible.Not that he wouldn’t like that.Well, not really, the two boys were getting older and he was starting to have fun withthem now. But maybe. It was his smile that received me. He was flashing me a broad grin brimming with overconfident sexual innuendo. No. More than “innuendo,” more than “overconfident.” That smile can only be described as arrogant. I think that’s what lit me up: The disarming boldness of it. He was standing less than two feet away, smiling at me as though . . . (How can I put this?) . . . as though he owned me, as though he were claiming me with his eyes. He looked deep into me & held the look for a length of time. Guided by the flashlight he walked over to the corner where the computer sat on a home office-type desk, he crouched down to start unplugging the power and internet cords from the wall. This is how Desdemona found him when she stepped quietly into the living room, her weapon pointed out in front of her in her right hand, her flashlight just below it in her left, she hadn’t turned it on yet as to not alert the perp of her presence. Fucking punk, robbing my own home, she thought. . But the driver had kicked him out in St. Mary's when he stoppedfor gas at the reserve gas bar. He said that Henri "creeped him out."Henri didn't mind. He could find another way west.It was early evening, so Henri paid the $15 for a no-services campsitein the nearby park. He had only intended to stay for the night, but thatevening he had seen a family come in and camp close to his site. Therewere three boys in the family, with a mother and father. Threecompletely delectable boys. The oldest was.