Her own mother was telling her she should…Oh, it was too horrifying to contemplate. She turned away, unable to bear the shame of looking at her any ...onger. ‘I’ll do the best I can,’ she repeated in a dead tone, even to her own ears. Her mother squeezed her shoulders and kissed her cheek. ‘I am relying on you, sweetheart.’ She heard her mother’s footsteps fade away and she was now alone on the terrace. A warm breeze caressed her, played with her loose hair. Reaching back, she gripped the loose. I’d been reading up on type 2 diabetes, so I’d pay extra attention to kids on the heavy side. We’re professionals.I’d use of the old Sunday school room, now a repository for Nativity costumes, maps of the Holy Land, plastic milk jugs -- o idea why the jugs -- a sofa, a tax-time offload from a parishioner with allergies. Sunday school rooms tend to accumulate such things. Not exactly a medical office, but it’s where Maryanne did her work. “Parish Nurse” taped on the door established. I work in an office and my secretary, who had been with me for several years, got married and moved away. To replace her I engaged a lady called Ethel who was about my age. She proved to be very efficient and always called me Mister Avery. My previous secretary always called me by my Christian name of Tom so I suggested to Ethel that she could do the same and she said she would. She was a good-looking woman and as far as I could see, had a good figure One evening we were working late and to. “You could have used the express checkout, Your Grace,” I said, pointing to a distant checkout designated for ‘Ten Items Or Less.’“It’s ‘Your Eminence now, Father,” corrected the apparently newly-minted Cardinal Rolando Calcavecchio, flourishing his garish cardinal’s robes. And the child had been right, they did look like a dress.He was the man who had sacked me, defrocked me and repossessed my BMW after I had aborted the exorcism of an epileptic girl.I started scanning his purchases, obviously.