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I looked up and saw Daddy standing there His face was glowing almost as much as mine I had his turquoise eyes, but Mohter so anyone could see that I had also clearly inherited Daddy's freckles, especially at the crests of my cheeks

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," he said and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek

Mommy watched from her wheelchair on the opposite side of h she was on the outside of a great glass bubble set around hts, those fears that whenever she was too happy, so terrible would happen She seehtened quickly into a s her

"What were the two of you doing?" I cried as theforhave you been here?"

"We atching you all night," Daddy joked "We took turns, didn't we Rain?"

"Practically," Mo as if this was ly put on a look of disapproval "More and more these days, he acts like a sixteenyear-old"

"You never lose the child within you entirely," Daddy assured us "I want to blow out candles on et to arrange for that, you two" he ordered, sounding like it was just around the corner

Mommy shook her head and smiled at me as if the two of us were allies forced to tolerate another foolish man Daddy could never be a foolish ht

"It's a beautiful o-round," I said as it stopped

"That,"Look out the ," she urged me

My rooan told me it had once been her room and Mommy said she used it when she had first arrived Now, she and Daddy used as Granded the decor and replaced all the furniture The bathroom had been updated to provide for Mommy's special needs

In the beginning Moes in the house She said she felt an obligation to Grandmother Hudson's s wore, walls had to be repainted, fixtures replaced, appliances changed, and Daddy brought in a decorator to give it all what they called a more eclectic style

The hallways still had the spirit of the nineteenth century with so across from a circular mirror of that period Mommy was very proud of all the antiques left by my Grandmother Hudson Mommy had loved her very much, so much that I was jealous and wished I had been able to know her too

Grandfather Hudson's office was the same as it had always been, butroom, the kitchen, my bedroohter colors and softer fabrics Recentlythe floor with a thick white shag rug and replacing what had been a hospital bed with a queen-size cherry wood one; this pleased Mrs, Geary very much

After Glenda had married Uncle Roy and she and Harley had moved out of the ency She was in her early forties at the time and had come from Ireland to live and work in Aray, her hair had once been al for her distant American relatives who she said treated her as badly as Cinderella's stepmother treated Cinderella