She asked him if she could borrow hisand he led her over to the counter and pushed it over to her. While shewas waiting for Derek to pick up, Bob star...ed filling her in on what wasgoing on here since she had left.He had immediately closed up for the day and the first hint that Bob hadthat something was wrong was when patrol cars started gathering at thefar end of the little strip mall. Derek wouldn't tell Bob any more thanthe bare details, but he did get across that he was certain thatsomething. The fan in my office spun relentlessly. I was not surprised when it was Cayla (not her original name of course) who appeared in my office. I like her as a student. Quite smart though not a particularly hard worker. Not what everyone would call ‘beautiful’, she has somewhat sharp features and even some evidence of faded acne on her forehead but her eyes and her smile have a strangely alluring vivaciousness to them. ‘You want to see me teacher?’ She walks confidently into my space. Chinese. I knew that if I said another word, he'd make me damn sorry that I did. I saw Ray looking back and forth between my father and I. Ray hated any kind of fighting or arguing. He especially hated it if my father was involved. I don't know what got into me, maybe I was showing off for my brother. "Goddamn it pop, that fucking hurt!" Boom! The next thing I knew I was sitting on my ass, my ears were ringing, and I was having serious difficulty remembering all of the many steps necessary for standing. More champagne was poured and there was a lot of crying. Not the least of it was from me.From that point, our visits were somewhat less frequent. Even the horses had moved to the ranch. At Thanksgiving the girls and Brian came to visit us. Bill and Crystal joined us as well and it was like we were one big family at the table. Then they all left. The casa had scheduled their Thanksgiving in the evening. But we went to the ranch for Christmas. And on Christmas Eve we saw Samantha, Hannah, and.