There were rolling grassy lawns and manicured gardens extending half a mile before reaching a large wall. He looked around at the valley on the top of...the mountain. There were small peaks all around him. The gardens had rivers winding through terraced areas. In the distance, he saw a patchwork of farms.Thousands of trees laden with fruit were alongside vineyards on a gentle slope leading upwards to one of the peaks.Beneath the archway leading to the pool was a gate that opened as he approached.. If it goes south, the old man is waiting in the wings. He’s all about the end of times, a last gasp. The fate of three worlds does indeed ride on this. Do not think for moment the humans know or can care. Just never forget the old man does, and he’s been conserving power for one last pass-through into this world to bring about his little apocalypse. Take that message to the others.’ ‘Is that some sort of promise?’ Lucifer produced a hat and sunglasses with magic and smiled enigmatically. ‘Call. ‘Should we reschedule then?’ I asked, getting ready to get up and leave. ‘Well we are already here, we should just enjoy dinner and set something up with them for later in the week,’ Jim suggested. ‘I guess since we are already here.’ I knew right after saying it, I should have just left but it was a nice place and I was lonely, so just went with it. Dinner was pretty good, although not the same without Matt. I was really feeling lost without him, and Jim was doing his best to be there for me.. Nurses were in short supply, and a good nurse could get a job almost anywhere she wanted to. But the first year had flown by, and she'd made a few friends, and it was hard to think about leaving, even if it might get her someplace where she could find a man.The problem was that the residents of Pembroke ... Nassequa county, for that matter ... were typically white, and had been for generations, while Jessica Dauphine was not.She wasn't the blue-black of Nigerian ancestry. Rather, her bloodline.