” Roberta and I put the lunch boxes on the table.Robert asked, “Fran, are there any ice cubes and outdoor glasses we could use for my raspberry ic...d tea?”By the time Fran got back the Robertson’s had stripped. He filled each glass from a 2-liter soda bottle. The sandwiches Robert brought were wonderful. They coupled well with a mixed tropical fruit salad.(At home Fran and I tried fancy cooking. Most of what we made was edible, some of it was quite good. But for just two people the effort was. Daddy took me into the pilothouse and showed me the course on the plotter. The electronic chart showed the green course line on the ocean blue of the map, and “Wing’s” position represented by a little boat hull shape, moving along the course line. He reminded me that the wind could shift, so I needed to monitor the wind direction, and I needed to check the sonar to make sure there weren’t things ahead of us on the ocean floor that came up high enough to rip the bottom out of our boat.Daddy. All but a handful chose freedom. After that, we selected the one in ten of the remaining population, including the craftsmen I wanted.Then we told each wealthy person to surrender half of their wealth. We asked their former slaves if they felt the amount surrendered to us was close to half of their former master’s wealth. I was surprised that the vast majority complied but assumed that it was probably due to fear of the consequences if they didn’t. Only six wealthy families ended up joining us. Her hair was still a bit damp, and I smelled the same perfume that she had used last time.In just a fraction of a second I forgot about the lasagna and, well, everything. The next few seconds everything became blurry. All of a sudden I had lifted her from the chair and was kissing her. Then I tasted something salty and when I took her head in my hands to have a look at her face, I saw she had tears on her cheeks.I didn't ask, but she told me she had missed me more than she'd missed anyone else.