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"Gesundheit I was close, wasn’t I?"

"You were," Keller said "But listen to this, will you? During the war, the post office in Geret stamps froelical a," Jenny echoed

"See, sweetie? Now Daddy’s talking your language"

"--but before they were needed, new stamps did arrive fro, the postal authorities buried all of the Wuga staa"

"--to keep the Brits fro them Stamps! Why would they care if the ene the whole colony, for God’s sake"

"Who thought that up, the sa the War of the Northern Aggression?"

"You’d almost think so," he said "After the war, before the colony was taken away froiued fro buried that they had to be destroyed, and the rest weren’t exactly pristine, but they took theot a whole sheet of them"

"Of the seven and a half heller, yes It’s the least expensive of the three denominations, but an actual unbroken sheet--well, let’s just say I wasn’t the only person anted it"

No one actually present in the rooht him for it, but there was competition online, and a phone bidder who just wouldn’t quit But here he was, tri e to receive it

The sheet was fragile, and he handled it with great delicacy He’d have done so anyway, but having shelled out a small fortune for it et the money back? He’d put on CNN at breakfast, behavior uncharacteristic enough to get a raised eyebrow fro for a particular news item from New York, the same one he’d hoped for at the airport bar

No luck And there were so , thethat O’Herlihy would decide to save this nificent bottle for a special occasion, or even atte it on to a bishop Keller had an awful vision of the brass-bound casket ascending up the hierarchy, until it wound up carrying off the Holy Father hi an extraordinary pane of sta patiently at his side, waiting for hi So he told her how the Belgian portion of German East Africa had been known as Ruanda-Urundi, but when it became independent it split into two countries, Rwanda and Burundi

"Wanda," Jenny said "Rundi"

Twenty-One

It’s Dot"

He looked up It was remarkable how stamps took him into another dimension He hadn’t been aware that Julia had left the roo, hadn’t heard her return, and here she was, handing hiratulations," Dot said "Your horse caood price"

"Oh?"

"There’s an online news feed that keeps you up to the ht now Respected religious leader, blah blah blah, extreme stress, blah blah blah, expected to provide invaluable testih it’s mostly blah blah blah"

"Well, isn’t that always the way, Keller? Everything is mostly blah blah blah What it boils down to, evidently the poor fellow got this special bottle of whiskey and it was so good he drank more than his usual amount"

"His usual ah to float a battleship"

"Oh, this is interesting Preliests that the alcoholic intake was exacerbated by barbiturates Thepills with booze, and that’s never a good idea, is it?"

"No"

"Death by ot hiuess, I’d say you dissolved theood"

"Why?"

"Because once the lab works its ic on the leftover booze, they’ll knohat really happened And that’ll keep the client fro that happened all by itself Not that I’d let hiet aith that, but who needs the hassle?"

"Not us"

"You betcha So I don’t have to give the money back, and they have to send us some more You happy?"

"Very"

"And New York was all right?"

"New York was fine"

"And I’ll bet you brought hoo play with theo no put Jenny on the phone so Aunt Dot can give her a big kiss"

"See?" Keller said "I told you it wasn’t exciting"

"It was a problem," Julia said, "and a cos, and in the end you found the solution How could that fail to be exciting?"

"Well…"

"Oh, because there was no action? No slah, at least for those of us who have one"