”“Once is chance, twice is coincidence,” Lee responds with.A smile broadens across the geneticist’s face. “Third is a pattern. Let’s hope ...here isn’t a third.”Lee shakes the man’s hand and nods. “If there is you’re going to be the first one I look at.”“So I’m not on your suspect list then?” Rick asks coyly.“I’m not saying you’re off it,” Lee answers straight-faced.Rick pulls his hand away and sticks it in his pocket. “Well I will help where I can. Like last time, all areas are open so long as. The look was prim, brusque,and rather 1930's retro. Kinda like a sweet BarbaraStanwyck....On a whim, I drove up to SCSU. The guard, all smiles andpoliteness, directed me to what he thought was the HumanResources office. No such luck. A black woman cleaning thewindows, told me it had been moved, across the street. Noone seemed the least bit concerned that I'd been walkingall day on my 3-inch heeled ankle straps and that my feetwere beginning to cave in on me. Two misdirections later, Ihobbled. We sit, me beside her as she hands me her heels.“They go with this dress” is her simple statement. Seeing my apprehension, she continues “yes, I know, but there is no presentation quite like that of a young woman in heels.” I slip them on, crisscrossing my legs as I buckle each. Oma places her hand on my knee and gives it a little push so that my thighs are pressed closely together, my right over my left.“Let me show you something…” her practiced fingers slipping across my knee to the hem and. The feeling one got when onefound the right tree was almost magic. Working together, Dad and I would soon have the tree down and the threeof us would load it aboard the car. It was worth the money when we got ithome and worked together to decorate it in balls, candy canes, Christmascookies and other festive items. At this time of year I would prefer themagic glow of the tree when the lights were plugged in over the heat of thefireplace. Mom and dad were always early risers, while I preferred.