The beer and snacks were passed around as Robert and I took our seats. Since we hadn't expected Nate to be there, we were one seat short, so Liz sat o...n my lap. There was a lot of small talk as we dealt the cards and the game began. The three black men were better at Texas hold'em than I thought they would be and things weren't going well for Liz and I. Within two hours I was getting pretty drunk and was down to my last chip. Liz had already dropped out of the game. I looked at my cards and then. I was glad. There was enough brass around there.With him was the school commandant. The one individual I was thankful that I had seen, but not yet met personally. That was a good thing. He congratulated me, talked shop with Dad and General Baxter for a bit, telling Howie he was more than happy to help with his project. Oh. I was someone’s project. Cool. I’m not concerned about that though, as worse things have happened to much better people.“I said this before, and you said you weren’t. You are. The dinner dishes had been cleared up; the whole family was in the house. "A world within the home and a world without." as her grand mother used to say.She sat with her tea, inhaling the scent of citrus rising from the hot water before adding a touch of milk. This was her time to reflect in quiet on the day that had passed and the blessings she enjoyed."Just one more thing to do before bedtime." She thought."Katie. Katie, grandma needs you to do something." She called to the living room.In a. You go do whatever it is you need to do.”“Mostly, it’s clean up from last night. I’m not planning on doing much today. We need to get more groceries, it seems. We’ve been feeding a lot of people. I thought we had a private line, though.”“We do. All that means is that we’re not on a party line, where multiple people share the same phone line,” Beth said.“Oh. That’s an error on my part, then. I thought a private line meant our phone number wouldn’t be available to others, unless we gave it out..