I looked at myself in a mirror and hastily pulled on a wig and a robe. I padded barefoot to the door and looked out the peephole to be sure it was Jor...an.I opened the door. Not only Jordan, but Lars. WTF? Was I busted?“Deb,” Lars said as he came into the room. “We thought we should come in person instead of calling you.” Panic was setting in. I could feel my breath coming in gasps. Please don’t say what you’re going to say. Please, don’t. “Dag passed away about two hours ago.”My whole world. Boring! "Do you play?" I turned to see this boy a bit older than me smiling . "Um...ah...!" Nice Rhonda, he'll think your retarded! "My partner didn't show up, thought you may play" Wow! Are his teeth sparkling? "Uh no...I would like to learn" God he's cute! "Want to go for a walk?" Whew! What a dynamite smile. "Sure!" smiling at him. Now don't trip on something!We walked along talking about school and other un-important things when he stopped saying, "I have to take a leak, come on". Next month, he was due to go to a real school, not the kitchen table with either mom or dad telling him stuff that they wanted him to remember even when he thought it was downright silly and dumb like what most grown-ups thought was real important for some reason he didn’t quite understand as yet.They were constantly repeating stuff about “Always look two ways before you cross the street.” or something even sillier like “Don’t run with scissors because you can get hurt.” He couldn’t remember. No longer self-supporting, at least half of the islanders lived in small shanty villages at the north and south ends of the island in bone grinding poverty.The kleptocrats remained rich. The lions share of the local profits continued to be funneled to the local generalissimo, and that bastard and his closest cronies were extremely rich men, undoubtedly with fat overseas accounts ready for the day when it's their turn to flee for their lives, when the next 'trusted' colonel gathers the ambition.