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Keller got to JFK hours before his flight He remembered, finally, to buy a plush rabbit for Jenny, who collected stuffed ani, the rabbit snugly stowed inside it, and picked up his boarding pass, then found a bar with a TV tuned to local news He ordered a Diet Coke, and of course the third news itear-free soft drinks and cancer The barlanced at Keller even as he was looking her way

Neither of thelass, duly at him He pointed to a bottle of beer, which she uncapped and placed before hilass He reached for his wallet, but she shook her head and walked off to serve somebody else

The beer lasted Keller forfor a particular news ite to hear it, but disappointed all the sa was always the hardest part

Around seven thirty he realized that a sandwich and the better part of a croissant didn’t amount to a full day’s rations He moved from the bar to a nearby table, where he ordered a Caesar salad with grilled shrimp and a second beer The salad wasn’t bad Neither was the beer, but half of it was plenty

He could see and hear the bar’s TV froo-round with the sports and weather and various fires and traffic wrecks And nothing much else

Just as they were about to call his flight for boarding, he took out his cell phone and called Dot "I’ home," he said

"Well, I can’t say I’m surprised I don’t knohy I sent you in the first place I’ll send back the money"

"No, don’t do that," he said

"No?"

"Not just yet," he said "Wait three days and see what happens"

"Three days?"

"Maybe four"

"Four days I could do that I mean, they don’t know you’re on your way home, do they?"

He ended the call, stopped in the men’s room Was the phone compromised? Even if it wasn’t, what did he need with it now? He took it apart, snapped the chip in half, and did other things to render the thing inoperative He dropped the different components in different trash receptacles and went to board his plane

"She’s going to love this," Julia said, brandishing the rabbit "Not only is it wonderfully soft and squishy, it’s froo put it in her bed and she’ll find it when she wakes up?"

Was there anything ? He tucked in the rabbit at her side and returned to the kitchen, where he looked at his wife and found an answer to his question

"I’"

"You cah Did you bring a story to get me all excited?"

"Not quite yet"

That puzzled her, but she let it go "Not a probleht you won’t need a story You knohat they say about absence? Well, it’s not just the heart that grows fonder"

"Now, here’s a sta Gabon nus "If you just take a quick look, you’d think it was the same as this one here Denomination’s the saot the sa tribe, and isn’t she pretty?"

"Pity," Jenny agreed

"When I was a little boy, I had some of these stamps Well, ones just like them The low values You see this sta tribe, and he’s a man, and very fierce But I saw the fancy headdress and always thought he was a woman Funny, huh?"

"Funny"

"Nohat makes this stamp different," Keller said, even as he slipped the stamp into the o Français,’ and the other one says ‘Afrique Equatoriale,’ so it belongs to the first of the two sets It goes in the last blank space on the page, one I’ve been looking to fill for years now There Doesn’t it look nice?"

"Nice ’tamp"

"Gabon was a French colony in West Africa," he told her "It issued staed into French Equatorial Africa Now of course it’s an independent country, but Daddy’s collection only goes to 1940, so his Gabon stamps stop in 1933"

"Maybe Daddy’ll take us to Gabon solobe, so you could show her where all the countries are I can see how you thought the warrior was a wo a couple of spears"

"A fierce woood idea That’s probably what I should have bought instead of the stuffed rabbit"

"Well, globe or no globe, don’t try to take the rabbit away from her She’ll tear your arm off"

"Rabbit," Jenny said

"A bunny rabbit," Keller agreed "One of your better words, isn’t it? Now, these stareat story that goes with them See, they’re from German East Africa, which was a German colony before the First World War"

"Like Koochoo, which Daddy told you about, except even your mommy can tell where this one’s located"

"Kiauchau"