Phoebequietly slipped into one of Marcia's aprons and the two of them would getdown to work.Once they got started, there were no more complaints about...the earlinessof the hour or the work itself. Marcia was pleased to see how Phoebe tookto the craft of baking, seeming to love the art of making life a littlesweeter nearly as much as Marcia did.She was great at the Blue Cat, too, helping out wherever was needed andgreat with the customers, who all to a person loved her. She had anatural touch. "For all I know, somebody has a mic on us right now!" (Actually, somebody did.)"Okay, Man, so why put your ass in a sling?" 'Cause Nora is too sweet for words, Man! You jus' don't know!" Nate mused a moment. "She tries to run things, usually, an' I let her get away with it a lot 'cause she's so damned good at it... I usually don't even know I been led around by the nose 'til I get there -- she's smooth! Gets it from her Daddy, I think. But once we're in a bed, she does this flip, an' I OWN. Ryan said, ‘Jessica went home, but I wanted to go with you and help King show you around.’ Alexander added, ‘I’m afraid that I won’t be able to join you this afternoon, my dear. But, rest assured, these two scoundrels can show you the place better than I can anyway. After all, it is all their own.’ Before he turned to leave, Alexander bent and kissed Freddie on the cheek. She wondered if she was ever going to get used to this family being so comfortable with her. And would King ever be that. He wondered where she could have gone. She didn’t have friends in the area. She didn’t have a job. And suddenly a desperate premonition made his insides turn. He walked to the closet where Maryam had kept her clothes. He opened the wide door and found all of her clothes missing. He rushed to the baby Imam’s room. The baby’s clothing and a few of his stuffed animals were also missing. The phone rang. ‘It must be Maryam,’ he thought. He ran to pick it up before the answering machine.