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The service ended with an announcement that there would be a reception in the church hall "We’ll ," Gloria whispered to us as we gathered our coats and followed the crowd out of the sanctuary The hall was in athat still wasn’t very new, and it had fake walnut paneling on the walls and yellowed linoleum on the floor It looked a lot liketables with red and green paper tablecloths on them stood down one side of the room One held trays of Christmas cookies and cupcakes while another held a punch bowl, a tea service, and a coffee urn As we hung our coats on pegs near the doorway, Gloria hissed, "Now, reo home Don’t spoil your dinner"

"She hates these things, but she feels obligated," Owen confided to me as soon as Gloria had pasted a smile on her face and moved ahead to make a circuit of the room "She thinks social chitchat is a waste of tiree with her there," I said, but before I could add anything, ere surrounded

"Look at you, all grown up," said a gno his neck to look up at Owen "I remember when you only came up to my shoulder"

The other locals then chiood it was to have Owen back for a visit He blushed bashfully, but he didn’t seem too taken aback Apparently these were all people he knew and was co a cup of coffee, and he responded with a nod and a s to his conversation

I made my way over to the refreshment table, where the cookies sat practically untouched Back home, that would have been the ultimate insult to the cooks who’d made them, so I took a couple, just to be polite, of course "And I’d thought we h," a voice behind me said I turned to see the minister, still in the black robe he’d worn for the service "You’re a friend of the Eatons?" he asked

"I ith Owen," I explained "I couldn’t get home for Christmas, so they invited ave me echoed the disbelief I’d seen from everyone I’d told that story He knew I ated by the folks "It’s nice to see hi a funny little emphasis on the word "friends" "He was always a quiet one" He glanced over his shoulder toward the person ere talking about, then blinked I couldn’t blame hiaze

The older people and creatures who’d been fussing over Oere gone, and he was instead surrounded by a gaggle of young women who looked like they’d stu sloay from them, but if he didn’t escape soon, they were likely to tear the clothes off hi him relatively safe was the fact that theinterference to keep the others out of the way of their daughters Handbags fleith a fury I’d only seen before at a designer saed eneral direction, possibly because Owen instinctively headed toward me I wasn’t sure how I could help It didn’t look like that bunch was going to be fended off by irlfriend That would probably only lier

"Ladies, ladies," the ed, "this isn’t the tiainst his festive purple stole I couldn’t believe it All these WASPy ht in the church hall I hurried to get on the other side of the food table, out of the range of fire, as the woe of the opportunity to duck under one of the tables If I wasn’t one invisible at the saic in use

But it was ic than I’d expect for a simple invisibility spell The hairs on the back ofdownaround the room I looked to see if I could find Ja with soly oblivious to the chaos--or else pointedly ignoring it Gloria did not look a one of the mothers away froed to avoid being hit by any of the flying cupcakes or cookies