Annie got a decorating bug, and she and Fergus took two classes on how to hang wallpaper. Annie’s house was now floral in design, which meant she had to buy all new furniture to go with the wallpaper. The bottom line was she was no longer sure if she liked the wallpaper, saying maybe she should have gone with stripes instead of flowers. Fergus said it didn’t matter as long as he wore sunglasses.

Myra went back to her knitting, determined to finish her “five-mile-long scarf,” which was now almost ten miles long. She trundled it around with her in a red wagon. “My knitting teacher, Claudeen, told me she thinks I should give it up and find another hobby. I’m not giving up, I’m going to make her proud of me yet.” No one said anything, even when she produced the red wagon with the monster scarf. She was satisfied with Charles’s comment that it was “impressive.” Like she didn’t already know it was impressive. Even Claudeen said she didn’t know anyone who had ever knitted a ten-mile-long scarf.

Jack Sparrow had finally signed the papers, and Nikki and Jack’s house in Georgetown was his. He’d even furnished it, with Amalie’s help. Amalie had moved into the spare room and paid Sparrow rent while she went house hunting after her return from visiting her family in France. She had finally found a house to her liking two streets over on P Street in Georgetown. They were an item, but only in a platonic sense. But that was rapidly changing, as was the relationship between Rosalee and Dennis West.

Rosalee would start her nursing classes in a week, thanks to a mysteriously financed scholarship that offered a full ride plus a stipend for living expenses. Everyone knew they were already “an item,” and everyone heartily approved.

Maggie and Ted, still reestablishing their relationship but hesitant about taking the final plunge, finished off the summer by simply working because, as the world knows, the news never rests. It was their job, a job they took seriously, to keep the public updated on world affairs. Neither was complaining.

It seemed like no one wanted to bring up the subject of Lincoln Moss, possibly because Amalie, the newest member of the family, was present. And yet it all hung out there like some unseen bad wind. Finally, Maggie said, “Okay, people, let’s talk about it, then we can move on.