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People on both sides of us stopped to look and listen, their faces filling with sht How quickly he tookby the time we reached the fa their toy boats Randall suggested we stop and just sit on the grass and watch for a while I sat, e around at the beautiful flowers Except for the laughter and shouts of the children, there was little noise How far away my troubled world seemed now

Randall had a wistful smile on his face as he watched the little boys run aotut the pond He reain

"What's it like where you come from?" I asked

"Toronto? We live in a fashionable part of the city I always attended private schools, just as my sister and brother do now As I told you, Dad's a successful stockbroker with clients as far away as Hong Kong"

"And your mother?"

Mothers intrigued me far more than fathers at the moment, perhaps because my real one had turned out to be such a disappointment

"My rass as if it was a paintbrush

"Really?"

"Well, she wants to be She has sold paintings and some small sculptures, but alleries in Toronto featured her work a year ago" He smile

d "I think Dad had so to do with that If my mother knew or even suspected, she would have pulled her work out in a New York minute"

"New York minute?"

"Don't you know that expression? Dad's always using it It means faster than anywhere else, I suppose because New Yorkers are always in a rush" He tilted his head "Haven't you ever been to New York and been banged around by people hurrying down the sidewalks?"

"No? You've coland, but you've never been to New York?" he asked astounded

"I didn't always have these opportunities," I said "Forto London"