He was a short tempered man and all of us were scared of him. I usually kept myself at a distance from him, as he never spoke to me -- except when nee...ed. My mother-in-law, Prema, was a kind lady. We settled in the festive atmosphere of the house and the day passed quickly. At night, with so many guests in the house, there was a bit of a problem in the sleeping arrangements, due to lack of space.My Father-in-law decided that all the men would sleep in two large rooms and all the women and. The stranger could only laugh at their acts of kindness, unashamed and with mild contempt. He found human compassion a curious thing, some mutant form of weakness to which he was unafflicted. And on such a day as this, so incongruous was it with his intention, that he could only laugh. ————————————————– Before she even knew what time it was, darkness was already ushering in on the heels of evening, spreading across the slate-grey sky like spilled ink. The clouds had not seen fit to part that. She's holding a long-stemmed rose in her left handwhich is covered by an opera glove that goes past her elbow. The rest ofthe picture shows a table with a glass of wine and a bottle of EagleCrest Vintner's Reserve Cabernet, beyond that colorful California housesleading down to an impossibly blue Monterey Bay. There's some text at thebottom about wine and romance and blah, blah, blah.You probably guessed that Tony got the contract and it was the job thatenabled his fledgling advertising agency. .. but otherwise didn't interfere with her life in any way. Remembering Karen's room back in Glenville, Maryon draped all the walls, blocking out the window and designing a heavily curtained air-lock for the doors, so that her storage space was all behind the thick cloth hangings, these on runners so that she could reveal her bookshelves, her record-player, her desk, and other possessions whenever she wanted to use them. Her bed was a box-spring and mattress, double-size, which sat in the.