He’s not as frail as I thought he would be. And he has the most unforgettable eyes. They’re like blue marbles. Philip says he thinks they’re some kind of special contact lenses. Whatever. They’re remarkable.

Then we visited the tourist sites. Even threw some coins in the Trevi Fountain because we want to go back some day. Telling you about that is going to wait until tomorrow, though. We’ve just gotten back and it’s late and we’re tired. A good, happy tired.

Love to everyone. Tell them all that they’re blessed.

Haley

The back door slammed and Sister called, “Mouse?”

“In the boys’ room with the computer.”

I heard her stop by the refrigerator, heard ice clunking, and then the opening of a cabinet.

“We’re all blessed,” I told her when she came into the room eating chocolate chip cookies and drinking a Coke. I moved aside so she could read Haley’s E-mail.

“Probably the reason Luke and Virginia and Richard left,” she said when she finished reading.

“They’ve gone home?”

“Richard’s gone back to Washington. Luke and Virginia have gone to Columbus.”

“They were speaking?”

Sister got up from the computer and sat on one of the twin beds that have been in the room since Freddie and Alan were children. I’ve never been able to totally turn the room over to an office. And the beds come in handy sometimes.

“Sort of,” she said.

“Sort of?”

“Virginia told Luke to go to hell, and he told her to kiss his butt.”

“Well, at least they’re communicating.”

We smiled at each other.

Sister crammed a whole chocolate chip cookie in her mouth, held up her hand, chewed, swallowed, and said that they had to stay where Virgil could get in touch with them.

“He talked to them a long time last night, though,” she added. “Luke admitted that maybe it wasn’t Virginia who hit him over the head in the church, that it was more an impression of someone coming at him, and he’d just seen Susan’s body and was rattled.”

She took a long swallow of Coke. “And Virginia said it sure as hell wasn’t her, that she was in Nashville by then getting ready to Senior Swing.” She held out the package of cookies. “Want some?”

I shook my head. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Fine. I had a little headache when I woke up and then Virginia told me they were leaving. I didn’t even have to take an aspirin. How about you? You look like hell.”

“I don’t feel as bad as I look. How did you get over here?”

“The Jag folks gave me a demonstrator to drive while mine’s in the shop. Nice. I may upgrade.”

Those Jag folks aren’t fools.

“Does Virgil have any idea what’s going on up on Chandler Mountain?”