"Sarah said, "I cannot do that."I could see she was holding back the tears when she said that. I did ask,"What happened ? I can understand if you dono... want to talk about it."Sarah said, "I lost my husband. He died overseas as a soldier. It happenedlate this summer. It still hurts."Nicole said, "My husband died about the same time. If you need to talk orhave a friend, please call me. Here is my card."I said, "I know this will be hard for you Sarah. But please be at theWellman on Monday. There. "They're just curious." No," Nikki retorted, "I'm pretty sure that Doctor Simpson thinks Terri's a better graduation prospect than some of his current students." That got a combination of giggles, smirks, nods of assent and from Alan, a slide into 'Father-Protector' mode."Sure," he said. "It's funny, but this is my daughter." And MINE," Tina added."And MY little niece," said Susan, reinforced by a chorus of 'Yeah'."Look," my Dan said, "We're getting in this kinda deep, folks! I mean, it's bad. There stood Daddy, he’d come to save us! His face was like I always remembered it, kind and loving. He was wearing his jacket, since it’d been cold outside. Then Mr. Greenwich dropped him to the floor, and we could see all of his blood leaking out of his neck. It ran down his chest to pool on the carpet beneath him. Mr. Greenwich looked at us, and he said ‘Hello little Billy, I’m your new Daddy…’ [Then the hell began.] So now here we are. Mommy is gone, Daddy is gone, and Samantha is gone too.. She’d nearly been caught staring more times than she cared to think about.Melissa finished checking in the books, and then carried them to their place on the shelves. She couldn’t have avoided a glance at Dani standing by the card catalog if she tried, but she did manage to keep it brief. Even that was sufficient to set her heart to pattering.With the books put away, Melissa returned to her seat and opened her book. It was an autobiography of a woman who had only accepted she was a lesbian.