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"Why?"

"It may be important that you trust ers at the very best of tiht her hand

"I shouldn’t be such a stranger"

"Trusther hand froain

Soed it, he was in front of her again

"Honestly, Jordan, I’m sorry I insulted your vinyl I "

"Thank you Excuse me," she murmured, and this time, he didn’t stop her

"Jordan! I hope that I ordered well for you," Lynn said as she reached the table

"I’ her seat

She pointedly gave her attention to Lynn as Ragnor took his chair "What areat antipasto, there on the table now Then rigatoni funghetti, delicious pasta with arlic, and then seppia"

"And what is that?" Jordan asked

"In English, cuttlefish Like an octopus or squid You’ve seen it here, surely It’s the special dish of Venice," Lynn told her

Jordan’s stomach instantly churned Cuttlefish Yep She should have known She’d seen it on uidebooks She was a seafood lover?of anything that didn’t look tooat her

Or anything that was related to an octopus in any way, shape, or fored to enjoy a plate of anything with little octopi on it; seeing the tiny suckers on the little legs didn’t do anything for her

She hoped her sed

She turned her attention back to the general conversation at the table in ti Cindy had said

"Legends are always intriguing Most interestingly, they correspond" He offered Cindy a rueful sels ere cast from heaven in Judaism and Christianity have ods, Assyrian deities, and the Norse rulers of Valhalla"

"Angels align with the old gods and goddesses?" Cindy said skeptically She paused to smile at the waiter as her pasta was served

"Lucifer, the beautiful, the fallen Satan was an angel"

"You’re saying that God is a legend?" Anna Maria queried with a frown

Ragnor shook his head "Oh, no, I believe that there is a God I’an ways of the past are not so different Knowledge is different, history is different, but there has always been a concept of good and evil and death has always been a great mystery Different societies have tried to explain it in different ways, but ide and throughout history, there has been a belief in a hell, or an underworld The Greeks crossed the River Styx Hell has always been down, and heaven is always up"

"Just as people are really very e"

"We all love the glitter of gold!" Raphael put in

"And we all fear reed "The great hairyFoot in the United States is Sasquatch in Canada and the Yeti in Asia"

"And darkness and shadows hide all evil!" Raphael announced They all stared at hied "E

vero! All over the world, children are afraid of the dark"

"The dark is e can’t see or understand That’s always frightening," Ragnor said

Darkness and shadows, and things that seeht She bit into her pasta It was delicious She would finish it, then move the cuttlefish around on her plate, and pretend that it was delicious, too

"So, Ragnor?is there a Loch Ness nor said, bringing the soft sound of laughter around the table "But who knows? There have been a lot of sightings?-just no beached creatures for scientific proof"

"There is no such thing as a Loch Ness monster," Jared insisted

The waiter arrived to take their pasta plates Jared see, irritated by the conversation that seeends have later been explained by science," Cindy said "Sea s do exist And blue whales! Larger than any dinosaurs! We accept them easily"

"We’ve seen blue whales?they’ve been seen since men first put to sea," Jared told her "There’s your proof"

"But I’ve never actually seen a blue whale," Cindy said "Other people have seen blue whales, but other people have also said that they’ve seen the Loch Ness roaned "Cindy, it’s not quite the sareat blue whales"

"I watch Discovery," Cindy said "I’ve seen a few pictures of the Loch Ness reat blue whale hasa compromise

The dinner plates had arrived Jordan looked down at her plate, already forcing a smile for Lynn

There was no cuttlefish in front of her She was staring at a plate of chicken nor’s eye He smiled

The cuttlefish was before him

"Lynn ordered it for ht I’ve dined on far stranger creatures"

Lynn didn’t notice the change She was still talking about legends, faraway places, sea creatures By the time she turned to Jordan, the plates had been subtly switched once again