<div class="floatleft"><div align="center">(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/cdc1/04s7432n614occi4g.jpg)<br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Chloe Dawson<br/>  ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾  </span></span></div></div><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… Mother is about to object …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “No Mother. You know why! Move forward! We have work to do, a future to make. Shed our past! Please Mother, we need you! Ask Huguette! We know she’ll come!”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… we go back inside and find Daddy and Aunt Becky … we agree to go to dinner and Becky reserves a private room at an obscure and very excellent, unadvertised restaurant deep in the North End … I have a moment with Kimmie! …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “Kimmie! Caoimhe! Gather all you can from Huguette. I’ll buy you all the time I can, but we have very little left. Months, probably less. The enemy is very powerful!”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>…  the car Aunt Becky called arrives and we pile in … Mother is all in a funk … Daddy is confused … Becky is feeling for her marriage … deep sigh …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “Aunty, Joel will be okay but  he’s gone, okay? I know that sounds harsh but that’s how we all know it is. His mind is like mush to him and he has to learn all over again how to swim in that. We all hope he’ll make it but it’s up to him now. We can’t help. Maybe his shrink will suggest how we or you can help but I don’t think that’s likely.”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… Mother is on the phone … hold Kimmie’s hand and listen to Mother talk in code to our Sisters … nod and lean over to Kimmie …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “You’ll like Huguette. Be totally honest with her. Everything! She’s the best! From an ancient family in Normandy and before that the Languedoc where his mother fled after they hung him on the cross. She’s a descendant of the most ancient ones and she’s clear and clean and honest. You’ll only have a few weeks to learn what I learned from when I could sit on on Mother’s knee and tried to understand. Nothing you don’t already know but in a light that you haven’t ever considered before. She’ll be here Tuesday, think I just heard. Our guest bedroom will have to do. I’ll try to stay out of your way. You need all the space you can get.”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… we arrive at a narrow alley in the North End … pile out of the car … adjust the flows so I’m next to Mother long enough to take her arm to let her know we’re allied …<br/><br/>… we enter the hidden restaurant down the narrow alley … greeted and seated by family … male sure Kimmie and I are tight next to each other as we sit …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “Daddy, red please. A Cabernet or Barbera?”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… put my head on my Kimmie’s shoulder to whisper in her ear …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">  “Relax baby. We’re safe for tonight.”</span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… but not much longer … the foresight intrudes! … Salem will be too soon for Kimmie and maybe too late for the typhoon struggle … which of us failed to reveal their machinations? .. we are well positioned yet all I know came only via foresight and not ‘official’ channels …  we failed again! … must I? …  no, others must venture there … a difficulty ending for a noble life … witness to what men did to us before … and distract many while I labor at the typhoon struggle …</em></span></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>… squeeze Kimmie’s hand as menus are presented with water …</em></span></span><br/>