I dropped my bags as she stepped towards me and wrapped me in her arms, my senses were filled with the fragrance of her. The shampoo she used, the per...ume that brought back memories of snuggling up to her when I was a child. Most of all it was the feeling of peace and homecoming that seemed to envelop me as she hugged and kissed me, the feeling of protection and love that had held back my childhood nightmares."Welcome home Mikey." Hi mom, it's good to be home."Chapter twoThe first week of being. Reilly was sitting on a corner of her desk sipping at a bottle of Gatorade."Hi, Lucy. Have a seat," her teacher waved at the chair by the desk. "I've been thinking. That last name. There was a boy by the name of Spell up at Bowen's Corners a couple of seasons ago. You any relation?" That was my brother Billy Bob. He got a scholarship to Texas Tech but hurt his knee during his first season and had to drop out." He was a great basketball player. You play any?" Yeah. We used to play but he was way. “Charlie ... Thank you. I’m looking forward to it.”I touched my finger to my brow and left her. She watched me leaving, then as she turned, I saw the smile forming on her face as she glanced back at me then walked out the back door to the patio, lit up a smoke, and pulled her phone out. I watched her from the parking lot. Maybe I was a stalker.She talked on the phone, animatedly, smiling and laughing, then said something, nodded, spoke again, pushed the screen, put the phone in her jacket. ‘I feel much better now I know I can see you. You’ll know what to do.’ ‘All right. But drive carefully.’ I told her to meet me at my local tube station in two hours. This allowed her ample time to get to London without feeling she had to hurry, it also gave me a chance to attend to one or two things at work, warn Fran and Connie that I should be letting them down yet again, and invent some story to justify such an early departure. I arrived at the station five minutes early and was unsurprised.