The next week was rough. I could hardly stand to talk to Karen and it showed. I avoided her and conversation with her as much as I could. By Friday ev...ning we were both worn to a frazzle.Friday evening when I got home from work I took a short nap. I was tired from a week of poor sleep and the stress of trying to work and then go home and act normal with my wife. Several times during the week she complained about my attitude and one way or another told me to get over my snit. Friday evening,. I simply smiled at him as I made my purchase. "I guess you're serious about this wanting to be a girl stuff?" he saidinquisitively. "No Sam," I said petulantly, "it's all just a joke for your benefit." His comment gave me pause. Had he just been placating me? Did he think Iwas less than serious about becoming female? I'd have to make sure heunderstood my intent. No, my decision didn't rest with him. This wasabout me, but I just had to know how he felt. "Sam?" I asked him. "Whatdo I look like to. If I had left alone, she’d be his now.”“She couldn’t have left alone! She passes out hard every night.” Elizabeth stared at me with moistening eyes. “She would’ve fallen without me.”Elizabeth, Zoë, Pat, and myself, to a lesser extent, were glitterbombed with an orange dust. Elizabeth and Zoë wore pajamas, purple and silver. I could tell that there was envy in my girls, for any change of color, knowing there were other colors. I tried to look around, but it was hard to read. Xiomara hovered an. As a boy he had roamed every inch of it and was often to be found in some cottage or other, drinking homemade cordial and listening to stories of the 'old days.' Phillip's father was a popular landlord who did his best for the estate dwellers and never dunned those who were late with the quarterly rents. His mother enjoyed equal status: she had started an elementary school for the Estate children and paid for the teacher out of her own resources. She also was the giver of the Great Annual.