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"Oh? Well, I' man"

"Yes, he is Maybe not as handsoave her hed How she could vex ht

The nextNelson came to the hospital with Samuel to see Chester

"He's a fine-looking baby," Nelson said "Your father would have been very proud"

"Daddy was hoping for a granddaughter to spoil," I replied and then added, "like he spoiledher"

I watched Nelson's eyes They shifted guiltily away and he quickly changed the topic

Sometimes the world around me seemed like it was filled with small pools of deception, lies that like quicksand would pull me down into confusion if I wasn't careful about where I stepped

"I'hter someday," Samuel declared with his chest out

"Not someday soon," I said and the two men whose only pain in the birth of their children was the pain in the pocketbooks, laughed heartedly

Thel after Chester as well as Jacob She truly enjoyed children and wanted to be more occupied I considered her rateful I had her It meant that as soon as I was on my feet, I could return toafter our children

Events in our lives took on a quick pace when I returned from the hospital Less than a month after I had put Daddy's house on the market, we had a viable offer I closed the sale satisfactorily and then went about selling, donating and bringing hoo to the house to see if there was anything she cherished, but she never went back once she had gotten her own things Nothing apparently held any sentimental value for her It didn't surpriseways to leave the house In my mind she used it like a hotel and all the rest of us, even our parents, as servants

Belinda didn't settle down after Daddy's death I learned that she had done passingly well at the business school and raduated if she had wanted, but real as not soht with any enthusiasm Somehow, she was able to occupy her ti with friends occasionally and always talking about doing so dramatic

"Maybe I should becoht try out for a part in a play at the Provincetown

Playhouse," she declared at dinner one night "I ht for a character in a play he's doing I' hi her eyelashes at Sahten as if they had fireflies dancing in them

"Actingfor you, Belinda," I said "It comes naturally"