Her bus didn’t leave for another hour and a half, and she knew waiting around the lesser-populated parts of Detroit alone and in a business suit pro...ably wasn’t the smartest idea. Maybe she could find a Starbucks or something... ?I must admit, I’m a little surprised you won,? came the voice of what Nikki assumed was another reporter, a few paces behind her. ?Sorry, gotta run,? she reiterated, although she was pretty sure that was impossible in these shoes. ?How much is that. On Wednesday nights, far away from the crazed heat and slurring hypnosis of the performance, when all was quiet and gentle and kind, Gregory would come up to the trailer, up the lane where I lived then as a boy, looking for money, and without a smile to be found. Those were merry days and the birds sang often, and no cars came along the road all that often, and in the early evening da would watch baseball and we’d eat homemade fries and ride bikes or throw hard green apples at bees nests or. As a result, and as a savings measure, Ronni and her siblings spent many a school night evening and weekend morning doing homework in one of the shops between handling the intermittent front counter traffic.On this particular Friday afternoon and evening, however, Ronni was free of those responsibilities, although she was scheduled to help out in the west side location the following afternoon. Tonight, she had permission to sleep over at her new best friend’s house. A new best friend who had. "How's Annie?" he asked gently.James shook his head in despair and glanced at his watch. "I don't know. They aren't saying, Dad. We've been here six hours," James said with his face twisted into a deep frown of concern."You should've called me sooner," his father chided gently."I was hoping they'd just take a look at her and send her home, Dad," James replied staring bleakly at the polished tile floor. "The doctor came out one time and poked his head in just to say there's some kind of.