Almost drifting off to sleep, the phone rang, and startled me back into reality."Hello?" Amy? This is your cousin Jan Johnston, your Mom's sister's da...ghter." Oh my God. Jan! Long time no hear from. How are you doing?"Growing up Jan and I had been close until we moved away when I was 14 or 15. Maybe 'close' didn't quite capture it very well, for me, I hope for her too. Then after my Mom died about 20 years ago, I pretty much lost touch with all my relatives, what few I'd not already lost touch. Juju was celebrating his twenty-second birthday and invited Fernander to join him.Fernander knocked on the door and when Juju answered, he greeted him with a hug. He also handed the birthday boy a bouquet of pink roses he grabbed at the grocery store, a bottle of whiskey, and a card.“Happy birthday,” he announced in his thick accent.“Thank you, sweetie,” gleamed Juju. “Darn I don’t have any water to put these in.”“Put them in the sink,” the IT professional suggested.“Good idea,” the six-foot. None of our many ships detected her vessel going down, what makes us think we could detect it leaving?”The Cam had to think and agree. If there was indeed a Union fleet vessel, it had Translocators too. As big as his Mother was, her mighty shields and thick armor were no protection against an Anti Matter load right in his Command center. The Narth who translocated the Chieftain, maybe even reading his thoughts right now.He turned to another Chieftain.“Quick set course to Thana Shoo and let us. Although I saw him coming and going from the shop across the road, I did not personally encounter him again, until two months later.Uncle Pete arrived at my gallery one morning, in search of a favour. He asked me if I would type a letter for him. Assuming that it was a business letter of sorts, I was surprised to find that he wanted me to write a letter from him to his grandson… from Santa Claus. Uncle Pete went on to tell me that although his grandson was twenty-four, due to a birth defect he.