The lady looked at me with a smile. I’m not sure it was my childish behavior with the snow or something else.“My name, Giselle, is Gaia. Perhaps y...u have heard of me?”“Gaia, as in Mother Nature,” as I answered slightly sarcastically.She smiled a little as she looked me dead in the eye. “Not like the one mortals typically describe. My abilities are much more limited. But, yes, I am the embodiment of this world.”I tried to look at her like she was crazy, but . . . we were sitting naked in the. Feeling others censured her for bearing a son out of wedlock. This sense of inferiority impacted me, and I have felt I was unworthy for most of my life."I still wonder why we lived so frugally when she did have money? It all confused me when it came to light. But I understood my mother feared for the day she might be wanting, both her and me, which led her to become miserly."Tim seems to return from the past. There are tears in Abbie’s eyes, thinking about what an unhappy childhood Tim must. .”Mumbling a thank you to her, I hung up the phone.Collapsing back on the couch, I was asleep again in no time. Once again I was rudely awakened by a shrill ringing sound. Cursing, I picked up the phone again, only to realize that it was not the phone, but the bell of our house that was ringing. I was wearing only my boxers and a crew neck vest, and muttering under my breath, I went to the door and looked through the peep hole. It was the 36-year old Punjabi housewife, Radhika aunty. I. "How the hell did somebody drunk as ya are git so far into the swamp? Let me look at yer face."The sentry reached up to tip Sam's hat back far enough to let the moonlight shine on it. This put him a little off balance, but it didn't make any difference to the sentry; he lived just long enough to realize that he had a large knife sticking through his windpipe and poking out the back of his neck. Sam caught the man as he fell, afraid that he might make a loud splash as he fell into the water.Jake.