I returned to the pond and told my wives what had happened and warned them not to let him back on the property. I got undressed and washed off, wonder...ng what I was going to do now. I could help Elizabeth but I hadn't done farm work for more that 6 years and never used horses or oxen to do it. I could run a tractor, but there was s distinct lack of those around right now.We headed back to the homesite where I found Willy and Ola waiting to greet us. Willy had come over to ask if I would buy. Being hexadecimal, he only had the numbers 0-9 and the letters a-f to work with. Every eight characters would yield a 128-bit encryption key. But twenty-four characters would yield a 384-bit key. I’ve never heard of a 384-bit key. Typically, you double, double, and double again. In light-weight areas, 64-bit encryption can be done with four characters. 128-bit encryption with sixteen characters, 512-bit with thirty-two characters, and if you were really paranoid, 1024-bit encryption with. My heart was beating like a drum. Just being this close to him again had my mind running through all types of possibilities. It had to be the spirit of Christmas. It had been just over a year and I hadn't seen or even heard about him from anyone. And now, out of nowhere he pops up. It was a sign. I was sure of it.I needed to be really careful about the way I approached him though. My track record was impeccable. I seemingly fucked up everything I touched. My life and my marriage were proof of. I had to repeatedly explain my policy of never dating anyone from work. I was so frustrated that I might have gotten a little too nasty, but that’s also his fault. The guy would not take a hint.To think, I used be jealous of the other women I saw him with. Since he was the only cute young guy on the floor where we work, I got my revenge teasing him unmercifully. I don’t think I was leading him on. Besides, it wasn’t my fault if he misread my signals.When Bill first showed me the evidence, I.