"About twenty minutes later Frankie came to the table, "Dawn, how wouldyou like to earn another five hundred plus tips tonight? One of myregulars didn...t show up."I let him talk me into it. it was just five sets, a hundred dollars aset. Mona and Tawny were encouraging me. And when the rest pitched in Iagreed. "But I'm not going to make this a habit." I swore more to myselfthan anyone else.I did a sixth set after Tawny claimed to have pulled a muscle. When cameoff stage Mona said, "She didn't. "And thanks. You know. For everything." Sam added."You're very welcome."While she was in the hospital, Freddie never left her side. He got both of their work via the hospital Wi-Fi and emailed each of their professors. They talked about what had happened then, during those long lonely nights with nothing but hospital food and the occasional snack that Carly would sneak in. Freddie wouldn't eat anything that Sam wasn't eating herself. He knew that she would probably attack him like a wild hungry. Part of the trip had been by rail, but they had had to find carriages to take them around two areas of track that had not been cleared yet. His father had not been able to make the trip, but whole-heartedly approved of the union.We assembled to walk into the ballroom when the time arrived. Where, in the past, the men had left us after escorting us in, today they stood dutifully by our sides. Jeremy stayed with me, while Tad was with Martha, Donald was with Elizabeth, and Charles was with. Itmattered little. This messenger spoke the truth.Those were indeed her ardent wishes. She had mulled it over many a time asthe years passed and she had learned more about the scandals plaguing theCatholic church. With each bishop and cardinal she met, she had grown moreresentful at their abuse of power, their greed, their condescension andtheir flouting of the holy laws they were supposed to uphold. She wastired of living in servitude to an institution mired in such flagranthypocrisy.But what.