“But La Contessa say is ok to share with you. Come.”She led them down the stairs into an old cellar with a dirt floor. Set into one of the walls w...s an alcove for cooking fires. Maria touched a stone on the wall and the alcove opened up.Troy and Julie looked at each other and said “A secret passage!” together, trying to sound like Scooby-Doo characters.“Si,” Maria responded. “Only la familia know. And the driver because he has to come here too. And now you.”Once they were inside, Maria pulled a. Connie naively asked if all of those diamonds were real.I said " Fraid so Connie".Jed said "Connie that is not a nice thing to ask".Sandi said she had noticed five identical flight bags lined up in the living room, she guessed we were packed.Lee said we had packed the day before.I had every thing for drinks on a counter. I invited them to fix their own. Jed and Sandi poured a tiny bit of rum in their Egg Nogg.Connie poured a lot.The rest of them were moderate with the rum in their drinks. All. ” He cracked open a couple boxes to reveal several paperback novels. The box he was looking in contained old sci-fi novels. He looked through the box, pulling aside a couple of classics that he intended to read for himself. He opened the next box, revealing a pile of romance novels.“Bleh. Never mind.” He closed the flap. Why were there so many books here? Pushing the thought from his mind, he got a good look at the tool bench. It had several drawers, all of which were empty when he opened them.. Periodically I would notice Cathy giving the baby a longing look as if she were ready to have one of her own. Sometimes she would just stand there and look at the baby sleeping in her crib. Cathy then would let out a sigh and walk away. I wouldn't mind having one of them also but we just had too much on our plate at the time. Maybe after Tracy and Alex get back home we could consider it. We did, however, keep practicing the process of making one every chance we got.With Tracy, Alex and the baby.