He is not the sort of person I would normally choose as a friend and I sometimes find him overwhelming but, despite our differences, I enjoy his antic... and I like him, at least in small doses.Nancy and Janet continue to spend a lot of time seeing or talking to each other. They shop together or meet over coffee to gossip and they arrange play dates together for the children.Sometimes our two families meet up somewhere for a picnic or other outing. Between us we have four pairs of grandparents on. He also ... absently mentioned Molly’s pregnancy not being normal.”He nodded, “She feels the baby kicking more this time, nothing more than spousal worry.”I sat back, “You know about my feelings. If he is mentioning this then we should be prepared. We can bring in our fleet surgeon as back up and have him studying birthing complications. Another thing, we need the scanners in place now not when we are rushing Molly in with Albert by her side.”He nodded and chuckled, “Tinker already read me the. Well, he should have been a merchant instead of a tradesman. He’s been good to us, though. He brings the leftovers from the night before to us. He should be here soon. I’ll ask if we can get you to a phone.”“I’ll need to be closely escorted by workers. Maybe a dozen of them. It mustn’t look like I’m wandering around on my own.”“Ah. Clever. I’ll send out a call. We’ll stretch the picket line all the way to his door.”“Liam! What’s your status, son? I could get a swat team down there in an hour. So he’d come in and grabbed her by the waist, she had fallen into his arms sobbing and bewailing the impossibility of saving dead boys. . . . and what could this boy-soldier, this PFC by his stripes, have been thinking of to be here? She no longer wept for them. Inside her, the milk of sympathy had gone dry an she worked emotionlessly, using her sleeve to wipe off the sweat that streamed like false tears down her face. She no longer wept for their mothers, especially his mother who would soon.