“Hi, Daddy! How are you feeling?” asked Riley.“I’m just fine. How are you, Pumpkin? You’ve got a sun burn. Did you go to the beach and learn...how to surf or something?” I teased.Kelly and Tolley laughed at that because Riley immediately replied, “Yes! Miss Tolley got me a surfboard!”I glanced at the grown-ups. Tolley said, “Hi, Grim. We got the kids boogie boards to float around on.”I rolled my eyes and looked at my daughter. “Not much surf on Matucket Lake. We’ll have to see how that works this. I thought about it for a minute, called him back, and simply said, “We’re finished!” and I hung up on him again. Of course, he hasn’t cared enough to call or text since. What a loser I was to put up with all of his stupidity for so long!Did you know that if you pour half a bottle of red wine into a half eaten, half gallon container of chocolate ice cream, you can drown your sorrows for about an hour? It’s true.I woke up this morning with a very bizarre hangover and a huge chocolate and wine. But the seed was now set. Over the next few weeks, every time Mum asked me to do something like tidy my room or run an errand, I'd tell her that she knew what my price would be. It became a big joke between the two of us but I knew that before too long she would need me for something so bad that it would force her into paying my price. My opportunity came after about another month. Mum had been making plans for ages to go to a show with her friends in a nearby town. Tickets for the show were. Both said that they would take me up on that offer.Over the next three weeks, i watched with interest –as outdoor changes occurred next door. Rani always supervised when others were doing the work or bringing in supplies and she spent hours working on fine touches after the others had left. Satish came and went on his work schedule but mostly left the work to rani. Frequently in the evenings, he would get out of his monkey suit and join me at the connecting fence to talk . i again invited them.