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Sea Cliff, San Francisco

Late Thursday night

One week before Thanksgiving

Judge Raainst the rocks below, a sound that always brought him back into hiht and listened to the waves, as unending and as infinite as he kneasn’t Only the sound of the waves, he thought Otherwise, it was dead silent, not even a distant foghorn blast froh a veil of low-lying fog

A light breeze ruffled the tree leaves and put a light chop on the ocean below It was chilly tonight He was glad Molly had tossed hiiving, he thought, a week before he would preside over the turkey carving and feel so blessed he’d want to sing, which, thankfully, he wouldn’t

Ra half-ht His ever-curious son, Cal, had asked hiers into the pitted surface Would it be hard, like his wooden Ford truck, he wondered, or soft like ice cream?

At least his day had ended well In the late afternoon, he’d met Molly and the twins at Davies Hall to hear Emma rehearse Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the San Francisco Sy thought of her as his own daughter, and here she was, a prodigy, of all things He had to be careful or he’d burst with pride, Molly always said Ree hadn’t raised toothe rehearsal Well, Cal did yell out once, “Emmy, I want you to play ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’!” which had brought warhter from the violin section

They’d enjoyed enchiladas and tacos an hour later at La Barca, the family’s favorite Mexican restaurant on Lombard, always an adventure when the three-year-old tere anywhere near chips and guacamole

Ramsey rested his elbows on the solid stone fence built when his boys had reached the age of exploration a year and a half ago Better than night off the sixty-foot cliff into the mess of rocks and water below

He looked out across the entrance to the bay at the Marin Headlands, as stark and barren as the half-reen things up, as green as Ireland in some years, his second favorite place on earth after San Francisco It was a blessing that this incredible stretch was all a national recreational area so he would never have to look at so a nice fruity Chardonnay across fro anchored below him, nearly as still as a small island in the ocean There were no other boats around it that he could see Who would be out so late, anchored in open water? He saw no one aboard, and for a moment, he felt alarmed Had someone fallen overboard? No, whoever motored over in the Zodiac could easily have swuet a suntan, that’s for sure He wondered if he should call 911 when he heard Molly open the family roolad you’re wearing your jacket Is your favorite sea lion talking to you again?”

Raiant of a sea lion that liked to laze about in the water below He hadn’t seen Old Carl in several days now He called back, “He’s probably at Pier Thirty-nine, stretched out on the barges with his cousins What’s up?”