Scrambling back, he could gono further as he crashed into an unseen steel wall. Where was she? She,yes it was a female voice, cold and soft, but none ...he less Female. Whowas she? The owner was supposed to be gone for the evening.Again she spoke, the words still soft, almost as though they hissed frombetween clenched teeth. "I said ... to what do I owe this pleasure? Whyhave you entered my home little man?"The starburst of light and the pain that caused his eyes to burn andwater slowly began. She turns her head briefly to smile at me. “You’ll learn, dear. It’s one of the things we’re going to have to work hard on in the next few weeks, before we move, this whole business of money. Because you’re going to have a lot of it.”“But why so much?” I ask. “Much money, and they buy fine house for us, and we work only very little for all this. If this can be called work.”“What do you mean?”“Linda, I grow crop, this is work,” I explain. “I learn very much, this is work too, different but still. Forget him. I want another drink.” Drinks acquired, they jostled among the pre-Christmas weekend throng, scanning about for that Yuletide scarcity—a place to sit. “So tell me about Jared,” Gretchen insisted. “There’s nothing to tell.” “Was he hot back then? Did he have a mad crush on his history teacher? Fixating on you from his—” “Jesus Christ, Gretchen, what is this? Am I with a work colleague here or one of the students? For God’s sake, let it go.” “You’ve gotta talk to him later on. He’s. Physics was still boring. Ms. Pixler was still cool and handed back my monologue without a comment. I memorized more Latin words. I sat in the back of the orchestra room with my viola da gamba between my knees and played my part. I met my girlfriends for lunch. Brittany and Cindy cuddled next to me at the table as we ate and Beca told them of our time in DC. I learned how to compute a fixed declining depreciated balance versus a double declining depreciated balance in Excel and when to use.