’ She sat clutching that cardboard box as if it would run away from her if she loosened her grip on it. From what Luke could see, it contained some ...attered paperbacks, a couple of notebooks, a hairbrush, and what looked to be an old doll sewn from cloth, its fabric stained and frayed. The sight of it hurt his stomach. He went to the kitchen and poured her a glass of water. Doreen took it from him with another thank you, and he sat on the sofa to her right. Leaning forward, he clasped his. .. The Ace of Spades!The crowd was too stunned to react for a few seconds. She had a RoyalFlush. John felt like his bowels had turned to water and his knees wereweak. The crowd was still cheering Marissa's accomplishment. John couldnot hear them. In his own mind he was hoping that Marissa felt the sameway he did about their silly little wager. He hoped beyond hope thather words were said in the heat of passion and that she really did notmean it.Any chance of that happening quickly disappeared. Later that evening, after dinner, Lynette said "I'm going out in the hot tup for a while after we clean up from dinner. Anyone want to join me?"Nancy said, "I will, Lynette."I asked "Is it OK if I come out, too?"Lynette said "Sure - you can go get the fire going." I went out into the blustery winter air and got a good fire going in the water heater's firebox and turned on the circulating pump. By the time I returned to the kitchen, Mom had retired to the living room and Lynette and Nancy were. It was, perhaps, just the tiniest bit remiss of Ernesto not to check on how that would affect the local balance of trade and power, but he reasoned that North African crime politics were none of his business.Six months later, the wedding of Ernesto and Rubina was very large and ornate affair with hundreds of guests, which nobody thought in the least odd, even though neither the groom, nor his father, nor the bride's father had any income officially. The honeymoon was to be three weeks in a.