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It was the three children Jenni had given her life for

Juan had been avoiding theh the fort, always looking a bit lost, three little waifs

Peggy tried hard to take care of them, but the three children did not speak to her or anyone else The oldest occasionally would ask a question, but hosts

Juan didn’t knohat to say At times, he could barely stand to look at the three children He almost hated them They were alive because Jenni had died

The little boy leaned down and began to gently run his fingers through the earth at the base of the freshly planted violets

"I have a lot of work to do," Juan finally said

"Can we help?" the oldest one asked

"No, no I don’t think so"

The ers over the features of the face of the Virgin Mary statue "She’s pretty"

Juan felt a sense of panic coan to dig another hole A whole tray of floaiting to be planted They had been salvaged from yards around town by Linda and Bette for him

"We used to do this with our Mommy," she said finally

Juan felt a luht not to cry

The children clustered around hian lay bits of pink granite in a little row along the ay Juan had already laid down People had been writing the names of their deceased faan to work at planting the next batch of flohile the little boy diligently helped

Unable to speak for fear of crying, Juan let thery Jenni had died to save theone

"What is your name?" the little boy asked in a hushed, raspy voice

As far as Juan knew, this was the first tied

"One," the little boy said with satisfaction

"No Juan"

"One," the boy said with a sht differently The boy was talking and that had to be iony, despite his pain, he let theood little workers When he ca for him He hesitated, not sure if he could deal with their presence another day, but finally he relented to their tiny s dirty, talking in hushed voices, but they were deteret the children to talk, but they refrained, drawing close to Juan as if seeking his protection

Once ry and wanted to scream at theether

Every y would make sure they had breakfast and had work clothes on, but otherwise left them to Juan’s supervision They called hiarden, but when others would speak to thean to enjoy their coan to look lush and beautiful with its red brick ays edged with pink granite and the plethora of blooie, told Juan and tickled his nose with one

"And why is that?"

"Cause they’re pretty," she answered with a laugh and rolled her eyes

Juan just san to have lunch with theh and tell hiy and her son, they would hug hiive him kisses on his cheeks

The pain slowly lessened inside and he found hi, as a helicopter ascended into the sky, he found hiarden The bench beneath him was cool and the breeze was fresh The three little ones ca

"We decided that you are now our new daddy," the oldest infor wide happy smiles