”“You got twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents a hundred and they average seven hundred and fifty pounds?” Clarissa asked, wide eyed.“Yup and ... figure we got six thousand at Tulsa of our own that’ll weigh more than seven hundred and fifty, by the time we get ready to load them and we fill ‘em up with water at the corrals. I figure we got over ten thousand down at the other place that will weigh at least a hundred more each.”“Eli Crow, you’re gonna corrupt my husband,” Amanda said and ran to hug. So why on earth was Mum calling herself Ayesha? She was calledAlison.So I was excited at the end of term when a chauffeur turned up at theschool in a Bentley to take me home to Mum. I was surprised, however,on getting to Mum's house to find that Mum was wearing a something thatI thought was called a hijab but which is in fact called a chador andwhich covered all of her body except her face which was smiling warmlyat me but also at the same time looking at me with pity."Thank you Abdul, that. “Break?”“Break.”They moved down to the creek, taking turns filling their canteens while the other stood watch. They sat side by side on a flood-swept log and ate lunch silently. Travelers’ rations were rarely appetizing, but hunger and fatigue were the best seasonings. “That magic you used to disappear and reappear, what was it?” She spoke without looking at him.“I’m not sure, really. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find out in the capital. Right now, what I’m more curious about is why the daughter. Real ones, accurate ones.Vanessa and I were sipping wine, lazily looking out our Main Street windows. Holding hands, Leon Redbone instrumentals in the background.Pilar came in and sat beside me, took a sip of wine. She spoke casually — she hadn’t yet learned that that’s a tell. She was concerned about something.Vanessa smiled, “How you doing, honey?”“Okay. Good.” She turned to me, “Winter, what’s it mean when a boy, someone like Jerry Simmons, says he wants to be my friend?”“Sooner or later,.