He looked up when she stepped in front of him and she saw a false smile on his lips.“You have been avoiding me all evening, Richard,” she complain...d.“I did not want to bother,” was his reply. She could tell the indifference was faux.“This is my very first ball and I enjoyed it very much so far. But this is the last dance, Richard, and I want to share it with you. Please?”Richard relented and let her drag him to the dance floor. The Viennese Waltz had begun already, but they quickly caught up. When I woke this morning it was from a most peculiar dream a dream whereI was cycling with my mother and father my mother was by my side on herbike and was encouraging me."Oh that's it Samantha you are doing really well." My bicycle had a bellon the handlebars and a small basket clipped to it but what surprised memost was that every now and then I could feel one of my long Plaitstugging gently against my head as I cycled and they swung in the breeze."Come on slowcoaches," I heard my Daddy say.. He apologized, “Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep with all of the excitement last night.”“Yeah, that was quite a storm.”Martin gestured towards the back where Jerry was pulling parts. In a low voice, he said, “His ex-wife hit his son with a baseball bat last night. The kid showed up on the porch in the middle of the storm. We spent the night at the hospital.”Carrying the box of parts, Jerry came out of the back. Seeing that Mike and Karen were here, he said, “Martin, why don’t you take a nap on. But I live near here. I could giveyou a lift there and let you use my phone. Would that help?" he asked."That would be great." I replied and climbed into his car.We started driving. His name was Wally. He'd lived in the area his entirelife. Apparently, he was a big Hank Williams fan, because that's what welistened to the entire time."So, your friends have been playing a prank on you, huh? Seems prettyelaborate to me." he said as he looked me up from my shoes to my chestleeringly. I was.