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Sunday passed in blissful peace If any ht, for Mo odd--or ht she saw soh my stress levels were sure to drop considerably once they were gone, my heart was heavy when I stopped by ood-bye

"I’ them one last time And I was, I realized As o

"We had a real nice ti back her own tears "I can see why you like it here"

"So you’re not going to drag ht?" Dad asked with a chuckle

"I knew you weren’t happy about ht for you," Morown up so much"

"And now that we’ve seen it," Dad added, "it doesn’t seem like such a bad place You kno to take care of yourself"

"It is really weird, though," Mos I’ve seen"

"I don’t believe the things you’ve seen," Dad muttered Mom punched hiet to work," I said, cutting in before they could start fighting "Are you sure you’re okay getting to the airport on your own?"

"We’ll be fine," Dad said "We made a shuttle reservation at the front desk"

I nodded with approval "Good They’ll get you there on tiet in, okay?"

I waved over my shoulder as I turned and headed down the sidewalk toward Union Square The hotel was pastforlike he usually was It turned out I shouldn’t have worried He aiting at the next street corner, as if he’d read ain, this en I was dealing with, so he probably did know

"Did you have a good visit with your parents?" he asked "It doesn’t look like they’re forcing you to go hoo well Now that they know the city isn’t quite the crazy place they thought it was, and now that they’ve seen how I can cope with it, they feel better abouthere" With my parents on their way out of town, I felt it was probably safe to spill the beans about my mom’s immunity, and if I could trust anyone, I could trust Owen I was curious to find out what he thought about it I glanced around to e, then said, "One crazy thing, though-- to explain what she saw, and now she believes there are so here"

I expected surprise or shock, but he simply nodded "That ot it fro in a place like Texas with such a low level of h her entire life without seeing anything ical"

"And the way ,loopy, as usual Come to think of it, this explains a lot about my family But please don’t tell anyone at the co for us"

He laughed "Is that what you were afraid of? Don’t worry, we generally don’t recruit anyone that age If she’s lived her entire life ignorant ofthe news at this point may be too traumatic"

"That’s a relief I kno desperately you’re always trying to recruit immunes"

"As desperate as we are, we’re still very selective about who gets let in on the secret" He suddenly looked worried "She didn’t figure anything out, did she?"

"No She just thinks there are e alternative lifestyles in New York than she’d realized My dad ht that Oh, and she thinks Idris is a drunk"

"That would explain a lot," he replied with a grin Then he suddenly looked concerned "Idris was bothering your parents?"

"Just a littleother than play pranks And who kneas such a big fan of old-time musicals?"