What exactly she was, remained elusive.I extemporized, "Could we have a tour first?"Smiling, she responded, "Of course."Was there a bit of shark in th...t grin? Hmmm. She led me to the changing rooms, and the canned sales pitch kicked into high gear. I would be expected to arrive early enough to change before the appointment time. There were two doors. Behind one she showed me a spotlessly clean sensory deprivation tank. This could be rented only on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and she would not. "What happened here?" asked the Sheriff as his men went to check the bodies.Several bystanders tried to tell the story at the same time and made a great deal of incoherent noise.The Sheriff held up his hand and yelled, "HOLD ON NOW! WAIT JUST A DERN MINUTE HERE! I KAINT HEAR M'SELF THINK WITH ALL YER BLATHERIN'."He pointed at one of the men and said, "Ya first, Joe." Ya ain't gonna b'leve dis, Sheriff, but that old fansy fella did these two bushwhackas in, single handed like ... an wit only. Her head was almost completely covered in bandages. Where skin was exposed, it was puffy and purple. It was a shock to me. The prefect looking woman that I had known as my wife had vanished. In front of me lay a stranger, a damaged and bruised human being. If her name had not been written on the white board, I would have guessed that I was in the wrong room.I didn't know what to think. My emotions were all over the place. We were separated. I didn't really have any obligation to care for her.. It’s what I was born to do, to cook, to clean, to mother people. Nurturing. It’s just ... my role in life. Home. Family. These are what I do, what I know.“It’s no accident that my favorite deity is Hestia, or as the Romans called her, Vesta. Goddess of hearth and home. I pray to her a lot, along with Mother Gaia, Kubaba Cybele, the Cappadocian Goddess Ma, Hecate, Isis, and Dann or Dana. Brigid as well. Demeter, also known as Ceres, from whose Latin name the word cereal is coined.“Yes, I’ve come.