After twenty five years of marriage, and having just the one partner I think we were both ready for this to happen. This could end being the thing tha... propels us to another twenty five years of marriage. We met up with Matt one night at a quiet motel off the beaten path. I gave him the room number in advance, and told him to meet us at seven. We got there a bit earlier so Jen could get ready before Matt arrived. She had spent the better part of twenty minutes getting ready before she came out. ” He paused as an implicit statement of reverence, “You sure it’s okay?”Eloise nodded, “Sure, of course it is.”He pored over it for a moment and looked up, “I bet Peter will be thrilled to see this.”“Maybe,” her happy tone diminished a little.Watching Joe’s face light up as he read, Eloise knew that Peter would have no such sense of wonder. Life was the incidental thing that carried on around him. He lost interest in Eloise and their family years ago. An absentee son, father, and husband,. Then we talked. What does your husband do?" Norman is a successful writer," I told Nadia. "He used to be a programmer in COBOL, but he sold a story to a movie studio and went full time as a writer. He helped me get published." You're a writer?" Nadia asked. "I've never met writers before." Two romance novels, and two children's books to my credit," I said. "And Norman had a Sci-Fi novel and two movie contracts among his accomplishments." May I read your stories?" Sure, I have copies at home.. When we got back to the carport Jill invited me in for a night cap but I politely declined, pleading a full workday on Friday. I thanked them all for a good evening and walked over to my place. I slept well that night and awoke with a good feeling about how things would be in my future. Little did I realize that while I was busy getting ready for work and thinking optimistically about my future prospects, my neighbors in 3-B were sitting at their breakfast nook, eating their granola, calmly.