You’re as big as a full grown man already and besides, you’ve got nice manners and a friendly smile.”“You ever worked on a ranch before, Joss?...�� Jonnie asked me before she followed her sister to the door.“Yes’sum I worked on a horse ranch back in Topeka for a while. I worked cattle in a stockyard over in Sedalia for a while when I first started working by the day as a hired hand. Your Grandpa Polk sent me here to talk to your daddy and momma about me hiring on as a ranch hand.”“Sit right down. Phil, his boss. He never told Lily about Phil, because he knew she would be in a rage. Phil was a nice enough man in most regards, he even considered him a friend up until the day he found out that Leon was married to a white woman. Leon had been used to odd looks when he and Lily would be out in public together but this was different. Phil didn’t look angry when he found out, he looked genuinely disappointed. “Oh,” was all he had said when Leon showed him the picture of Lily and him together. That's all you could do."Everyone had been saying that to me for the past hour. I wanted to believe them, but I wasn't convinced that there wasn't something else I could have done. The friend who was like a sister to me was in surgery, possibly dying, and I felt like it was my fault.Tears welled up inside me, but they wouldn't come out. Since going into the nurse mode while taking care of Joyie, I'd been unable to function in anything other than the calm collected manner that mimicked Mom's. Here atthe orphanage, there wasn't much to do for fun. I think all orphanagesrun by the Siblings of Peace were like that. As usual, I was daydreamingabout science, and more specifically, astronomy. Since I could remember,I'd been fascinated by space. I enjoyed stargazing, peering into theheavens in awe and wonder at the marvels they held. My first memory ofthe stars was looking at the sky and thinking on a clear night andthinking there was a band of clouds. Someone told me, no, that was.