She was cute, I had to admit. She had short hair pinned withlittle barrettes. She even playfully flirted back with Patrick, whichbrought out his shy...guy smile instead of his skater smile, the one thatsaid, I don't care what you think. The shy guy smile said, I care toomuch what you think, and even I found it adorable. It was like finallyseeing a real person for once and not just the mask we all wore. Youfucker, I thought to myself, but it kind of made me happy, too.After that, I felt in a. One evening I had a call from Alejandra. She had someplace she had to go in the late afternoon next Saturday but she planned to be back home by early evening, and would I like to go out for a late-ish supper? Of course I would.When I showed up a little ahead of the time Alejandra had set for her return there was no sign of her. Natalia greeted me with a hug and a kiss that was proper but to my active imagination seemed to suggest possibilities. The devil, the one on my right shoulder,. “Sure. Looked like a sort of waiting room or whatever for the big boss upstairs.” She opined.“There were three other Dwarves sitting at that table.” John told her. “You didn’t see any of them?”Veronyka’s jaw dropped. “Three? No! Really? No! Not at all! Really?”John looked back to Dulgan. “I guess you’re right. I didn’t realize nobody else could see them. Why could we see Mokul then? Let me guess, his was ‘turned off’ too?”Dulgan nodded. “Aye. He did it, righ’ when he opened th’ door. If’n. Off to the right was a long chain link fence that separated the hospital grounds from the main road and to the left was a dirt path that led into the trees.Inside the grove was a small clearing, filled with tall grass and broken tree stumps. I stopped and began scanning the area. Just off of the center was the dying remains of a towering poplar, lightning struck years ago, but still clinging to a thread of life. I linked with the tree. I could feel the slowed movement of its sap, the once.