As she cautiously entered the room, she squinted. At the other end of the room, a shadeless lamp had been switched on, a bright white light flooding t...wards her. Her heart raced as she glimpsed a silhouette of a man seated on a folded chair in front of the light. "Cal?" she gasped as her heart raced. The big man leaned back in his chair, the lamp casting light on his face. Calvin sat easily in his chair, a subtle smile on his face.Jamie was relieved that it was him but shifted uneasily on her. More to the right was an old freshly painted privy that was still useable if there was a plumbing problem. The house was another thirty feet to the right of that, behind a huge black walnut tree, with a wood picnic table in front of the porch. About fifty feet to the right was the machine shed and pump house, and directly behind that was the smoke house. There were stacks of split logs curing, as well as split logs waiting to be used in the smokehouse.Farther to the right was the barn that was. Shouldn't be a biggie since I knew she had been married before when I met her. But knowing that I hadn't been there first and that I was sitting across the table from the guy who had been was a little unsettling.The next morning when we got up Fran said, "Now that wasn't so bad, was it? He'll be done with his business and will be gone in three or four days and you won't even remember that he was here."And in fact it was like he wasn't even there. For the next two days Carl was up and gone. Mom and Dad said wewould be celebrating as a family this evening. They were going to takeus out to my favourite restaurant for dinner and then we would come hometo open my gifts. What a relief I thought, for a while I wasn't evensure they would celebrate my birthday let alone get me gifts.We arrived at the restaurant around 7. We all sat at the booth and weregetting ready to order. I ran to the washroom before as I had to pee.Upon returning to the table mom said I missed the waitress so she.