He wondered, in passing, how many former slave owners were among Offutt's customers compared to his.Zed had brought in a number of his friends and rel...tives early on and now the store served the needs of quite a few black freeholders, mainly men who had owned property long before the end of slavery. His store was one of the few that would extend them credit, and that fact brought in more business, especially from hardscrabble tenant farmers, both black and white.Within eighteen months the. "Hey yourself," she answered. Indicating the empty bench beside her, she said "Join me." I hopped into the seat and introduced myself while she poured a couple of glasses of champagne from the bottle on the table. She was probably in her early to mid-thirties, but if she said she was twenty-one I would have believed her. Dark hair and flawless pale skin made me think of a grown-up version of Snow White. A Snow White who had become a queen, made that prince her bitch, and was now on the hunt for. The idea was apparently devised by James Farley, who was President Franklin Roosevelt's campaign manager back in the 1930s. People used to be terribly impressed at the President's apparent prodigious memory of long-ago meetings, not knowing Roosevelt had been briefed ahead of time from Farley's detailed files."OK," Marilyn was saying, "you met him twice last year during Butterfly. He gave you a super write-up, you were the new Callas"—Maria Callas, legendary soprano of the mid-20th century—"but. "They went inside the cottage which was cooling down already with the air conditioning working just fine."Once I get the window boards off, we won't need the air any more. That Ocean breeze just cools things down so fast." I'll come back out in the morning and help you. It's my day off. Maybe we can go swimming later."Julie was really happy. She had never expected to meet Jack again. At least, not this way, it was as if fate had stepped in and made them linked together by some cosmic force..