"I looked at George and lied, "No Sir!" Then I pointed at the three that mouthed off and continued, "These three Marines volunteered to watch the othe... three sides of the building."I could tell I made some points for not telling George the truth as they got up and headed to the sides of the building while I took up position on the side closest to the LZ.Flashback – Jack – in the hospitalColonel Maggie walked up beside my bed, smiled at me and teased, "Well this is a fine mess you got yourself. It was called Cowford, which tells you everything you need to know about it. It was completely defenseless. If the pirates hadn’t been so intent upon pillaging Widemouth they could have gotten all the food they could have wanted from Cowford.Once we got away from the Wide River area we stopped seeing fishing boats and the world appeared empty. No one lived on the shore. Between pirates and the rough coast, it was simply too dangerous. On Earth, the coast would be covered with houses from people. “Er, yes. Lucinda de San Finzione. Are you lost?”“Yeah.” I said, seizing the opportunity. “I ... uh, don’t get over to this side of the castle often.”“I see.” Came her response. “Perhaps you were looking for La Contessa’s office?”“Yeah. This looked like the nicest once, so I figured it must be hers.”Lucinda gave that a tight smile, the kind that, if she’d opened her mouth to show her teeth, I would have been surprised to see just a single row of them behind it.“No,” Lucinda answered. “This is. C-Rae was an out-going chatterbox who was as tall as her eight-year-old brother Matthew. I laughed at the answer.“Let’s go to see Maribelle,” I said. We left the new bakery and walked past the café to our little community grocery store. C-Rae immediately ran to the cooler and pointed at the eggs.“See?” she called triumphantly.“Maribelle,” I said as the kids all gathered around. “Do you lay these eggs right here in the grocery store?”“Exactly what kind of an old hen do you think I am, Brian?”.