The market was soft at the time and I didn't get any offers that were anywhere near what I wanted. Then about three months after I put the house up fo... sale something happened that made me pull it off the market. I went over to DeAnn's one Saturday to pick up the grandkids to take them to the zoo. When they got in the car I saw that David had a black eye. I asked him what had happened and he turned his face away from me and wouldn't talk. I was trying to get him to talk to me when little Janie. I offered up my guest room, and she immediately agreed.Later, I continued through my usual daily routine. As the sun fell down below the horizon and the darkness crept over the sky, I took my nightly shower. I enjoyed the hot water lightly falling over my body, and tried to scrub away the unclean images I was having of my daughter. I had not partaken in physical relations in quite some time. Natassia had been gone for nearly one and one-half decades, and I had slept with only one other woman in. "Greg frowned, and started to feel a little out of it, "I... I don't knowif I have that money, let me check. He reached down and tried to find hiswallet but it wasn't there. "Do you have any money on you, now that Ithink about it.Kelsey looked down and tried to find his wallet. While looking, he lookedup confused, "Man, Gretchen, I picked you up off the street to help you, Iwon't be able to do that by just giving you money."Who's Gretchen?" Greg asked. Only the voice was a lot higher than he. I've always liked the smell of new leather; one of my favourite shops as a child was the cobbler, where the aromas of leather and wax polish competed. It was always warm in there, and Mum used to chat to the cobbler's wife while I looked over the counter and admired his dexterity with a fast-spinning wheel to burnish and polish the welts of newly-soled shoes. And my shoes came back from the cobblers so well polished that they looked like new - well, for a few days, until I had scuffed them.