"Damn, damn!" The cat hissed and scurried away.She stomped down the wide staircase and trotted to the kitchen where it was warm, picked up a freshly-m...de biscuit and plunked herself down on the tall stool the cook used when she was stirring batter. "Bess," she said to the wide black woman resting near the open hearth, "Got a problem, a big problem." She sighed, loudly."Fus' time ever," said the big woman with a smile. She had known and liked the willful red-headed girl all her life."There's. He emailed them back with the URL to his stories. Once or twice a month either Hypnotic or Summer would email him, telling him about what they were doing and what was going on in their lives, and he would reply with what was going on in his life. George appreciated the email exchanges, thinking he'd probably never see them again, or possibly seeing them next summer when he returned to Columbus.George would have thought right, except that six months earlier Columbus passed a law making strip. Tyler: Heya Donna...you walking home?Oh its you...yes I am.Tyler: I'll walk you home.No...No there's no need.Tyler: Tell you what...i'll call you a cab.And he did. I was glad in many ways as I hated walking home. He was quite quiet in the cab. I guess the bravado was for his mates. And he did as he said. He dropped me to my door. As I left the cab he jumped out as well and paid the driver.What...what you doing?Tyler: Thought I'd come in for a coffee.I tried to tell him I was a married woman, my. She gave a little gasp when, instead of shaking as she expected, he brushed a soft kiss on the back of her hand. ‘Until tomorrow then, Sara.’ And with a grin and a final flash of his blue eyes he was gone. Sara stood and watched him stride away along the path, the leaves dancing joyfully around him as he went. As the distance increased it was difficult to tell whether they were rising before him or in his wake. It was easy to imagine that these children of the gods of autumn were parting before.