Veronyka took off her helmet, and squatted with her arms spread.“Momma!” Mason squealed happily.The boy was closing in on two, and missed her terr...ibly. He crashed into her with his own arms encircling her waist.“Momma! Momma!” He repeated endlessly.Veronyka scooped him up and stood. Kisses and nose-rubs followed as she inhaled his scent.“How’s my little guy doing?” She asked playfully.“Good!” He babbled on about something he’d been doing with Mist.That woman appeared, as though summoned by his. Bob got a substitute for the next afternoon, and then took Amanda out of classes."I thought we were going to talk about this tonight," she said. It was the first thing she'd said to her father since the night before. That morning breakfast had been silent."You have a doctor's appointment," he said."I don't remember any doctor's appointment." You have to have an examination before the doctor will put you on birth control," he said."Oh." What? No argument?" No," she said, softly.By the time they. Tom and the others were standing next to the bottom of the earthen ramp, rifles in their hands, waiting for me to come back.“There’s six of them. Bandits from the way they were talking. Two of the men were the ones we passed coming out of Arizona City. They know we’re out here somewhere and want to take our freight. They’ve moved their search east of us.“You all go ahead and keep digging. I’m going to follow them on foot and make sure they don’t find us accidentally.” Tom stopped me before I. ”“Messiah?” Belinda again.“No, the first three parts of Bach’s Christmas Cantatas.”“Whee! The first part’s lickety-split!”Both Grace and Terry laughed.“I was hooked, said Grace, “and the director had lent me a score and afterwards asked me to join.”“I was welcomed and, thank goodness, the director took the first few rehearsals at half speed,” she went on.“Which meant,” said Belinda gently, “that you were doing something together without the job constraints.”Both Grace and Terry nodded.Terry.