The first few books I picked up and carefully opened seemed to be fiction books. I was hoping for something with poetry, so I picked out the oldest lo...king one and opened the cover. I couldn’t read the text, Yan Shin would later translate for me, but I could see it was poetry. I fumbled through my pockets and then handed the man several strange coins and waited as he carefully wrapped the book in paper. He then reached for a modern book from the bookcase to his left and pulled down a. “Ali, I know we are okay, but I need to settle things with James. I feel terrible about what we did and need to apologize to him.” “What!” shrieked Ali, her gaze suddenly shooting up and establishing eye contact for the first time. “No, you can’t! I mean, there’s no need, really.” The frantic nature of her response, the tone, was all Dan needed. He stepped forward, slipped his left arm around her waist and in barely a whisper said, “Why not, Ali. It’s the right thing to do.” “No,. "Yes, we're here for Christmas," I told her with a smile."Come inside. It's cold out," Mom told us. Once inside, she added, "you ladies can use the same room as you did for Thanksgiving. You'll need to make the beds. I'll get the sheets and blankets out for you in a few minutes. Mark, you're in your regular room." I carried our luggage in and put it in our rooms, but left the firkin in the truck, as it wouldn't mind the cold. Mom seemed jittery or upset the rest of the afternoon.The situation. "Yeah," I said nervously, "I smoked Virginia-um Kent Golden Lights but just switched." You know," he told me, "Sylvia down there at the liquor store smokes those."I gulped down the iced tea and put out my cigarette and made an excuse to leave. Ohmygod! I thought. He knows her and he'll undoubtedly tell her and... Gulp! She might tell my mom. But I also considered that she already knew I smoked, assumed so when I bought the More 120s from her. But, God! If my mom found out I was in major.