Tess spent the few minutes while I was talking to the doc at her mother's bedside. "She's still sleeping, Unca James. I saw her breathing, so she'll b... ok. Do you think she'll be home this week? I have my First Grade grad-ation on Friday." Tess," I said with a suddenly thick throat, "Your mom isn't gonna be home by Friday. Maybe she'll be awake by then – maybe not. She's going to be in the hospital a long, long time. But we'll take lots of pictures and even a movie and she can see it later.". We followed him into the ‘study’. It was almost as big as my old apartment above the shop, twelve foot ceilings, tall windows, lots of book shelves. ‘THERE!’ he exclaimed handing me a check. ‘You are staying for dinner aren’t you?’ I looked down at Barbra, she shrugged, ‘I guess we’re staying.’ ‘Wonderful! Would you and your daughter like to join us out at the pool for a while?’ I about stumbled, ‘Um, Barbra isn’t my daughter.’ Don turned to look at us, ‘Oh?’ ‘Girlfriend… for now,’ Barbra said.. Hmm. aahh”.I grew really suspicious now. I knew she was up to something but what it could be was the real question. I heard for a while and similar sounds were heard. Then I heard the sound of tap running, so I went back and sat on the bed and put my headphones on and acted as if everything was normal. She came out of the bathroom and looked normal and happy. I decided to check out a few more days just to be sure as to what is happening. This kept an eye on her for about 2 weeks. I heard the. I thought perhaps that I should end it quickly; allow myself to sink and get it over with. I’d read somewhere that drowning was supposed to be an easy way to die. But life is nothing if not stubborn and some tenacious inner resilience refused as yet to so quickly abandon my life.I shivered in the water. Even the Aegean Sea can be cold in May. Then there was a splash in the water behind me. I whipped my head around in fear to see only the disturbance made presumably by some large creature from.