They’d been my neighbors when I bought the house, some two years ago. In those two years, we’d conversed occasionally when bumping into each other...at the end of our drives.The seclusion and privacy of Beverly Hills was designed to discourage familiarity but I couldn’t help notice how Betty and Harold seemed to have classic cocktail parties three or four times a week, the big band music and babble of voices reaching me when I sat on my patio. Their soirées would go on into the early hours. It. "I love them."Just then my number was called and I ordered my three warm sweet rolls,paid for them, all the while this boy was standing next to me, waitinghis turn. I was about to leave and I don't know what came over me but Iasked him,"My place is just down the block. Would you like to join me for a cup ofcoffee? I will share my rolls with you, too."He told me that he worked for the coffee shop on the corner, and thatthey ran out of sweet rolls this morning and he was picking up an orderto. Does this matter?”“Maybe later it will.”Axel’s answer confused Alvina.“So how will we find this god?” Rayner asked.“It will find you,” Alvina said.Well, that was ominous.The Elves had rushed them out of their forest enclave quickly after having their conversation. Axel understood why. Conspiring to kill a god was risky, the longer they stayed, the more time the god had to find out what the Elves were up to.Now that he knew a god inhabited the forest everything made a lot more sense. Not only. As I handed her the drink my hand was shaking badly but I tried to keep up a façade of normality... like I had naked women running around my house all the time. "Here you go Marilyn, one rum and Coke." She took the drink from my trembling fingers and smiled at me."Thanks Mark, I really appreciate this."I guess that my mouth was wide open and I know that my eyes were as big as saucers as I stared at her breasts as they pushed out the Forty Niners helmet in the center of my blanket, her long legs.