Claude was agreeable in his own way … but had he always been so vocal about it? Good for him, Claude! Coming out of his shell, finally!

Oh, God. She was going to have more grandchildren soon-wait, no. Priest. Thank God!

“You’ve always done the right thing,” she sighed fondly.

Hard life, Claude had in no small part from her. She loved him all the more for it.

The world spun less. She shook her shoulders, trying to recapture the free fall that she hardly felt herself without. Shook the bottle desperately over her open mouth.

“God, no,” Anita sighed, some of her pleasantness blunting with frustration. “Your daddy’s faster. You know that.”

For the first time since her arrival, the congregant looked at him. Her chin pulled into her neck, like a hawk studying a hole that it swore it saw a mouse dive into. Well, if said hole moved a lot.

“You’re not holding out on me, are you?” she asked with a note of concern.