Slowly I felt my resolve wear down. It was bad, but so, so good at the same time. I tried to fight temptation, but it was a losing battle. "I know," s...id Derek, pressing his body against mine. "Isn't it fantastic?" He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "You always did have pretty yellow hair," he said softly. Yellow hair, I thought with dread. The sentiment brought back years of teasing from my sisters and cousins, me being the only blonde haired and blue eyed, in a family of dark. I had not counted on the desperation of a dying woman.When Melodie’s letter reached me, she told me she had been searching for me for years. To try to apologize for her reaction in the hospital.“No apology will ever excuse how I reacted,” she wrote me, “but I do want you to know that I have never stopped loving you.”She also told me she had never filed for divorce.At the end of the letter were her final words.“I may be dead by the time this letter reaches you,” she wrote. “The cancer spread so. Leona and Stef had spread out just a bit so there could not be a concentration of fire and to take some of the pressure off of me. I opened up on the landing gear on the near side. I kept moving the entire time so I was getting hits all over that side of the Dropship but I was getting hits on the landing gear also. I moved right under the wing. Inside the arc of their weapons they couldn't fire at me and I could take my time on aiming now. With me in position Dirk quit firing. I took out the. And Pilar must be too. Although it’s harder to tell with the handler. But between them, they started finishing in the money. Well, taking home a ribbon anyway.So Pilar applied herself. Talked with other trainers, owners, breeders. Studied countless videos. Watched closely, learned. They got better, Hobo and Pilar.Walker is pretty good too. He and Hobo brought home a few ribbons too. But Pilar was simply on a higher plane so Walker stepped back, turned the stage over to her.I know my son, know.