' Littles seemed to naturallycongregate towards the front and I found Laura and Meg sitting with anempty seat saved between them for me."Hi," I said t... them as I took out my booster from my backpack."Any word on your sister?" Meg asked.I shook my head. "No... I'm hoping she's okay, but it's not lookinggood..."I wiped the beginning of a tear from my eye and made sure I was readyto take notes on my tablet. Laura and Meg brought me up to speed on theevents at the dorms from yesterday. It turned. There was no longer any liquor in her house, so this was simply an opportunity to experiment and be sociable.She had actually been having a pretty good time, so far. At first she had stuck close to Suzy and Lucia, her two friends from before, but everyone had seemed friendly enough. And the conversation had so far stayed very light, if a little loud in order to be heard over the record-player: Teachers and classes, clothing and hair, TV and music and movies. She took a sip of her wine. . Contemporaneous. I have no idea what it is, but I’m no fur expert. I can tell you with certainty, though, that there’s no possible way this could have anything to do with my field, which is prehistoric man.”“Even so,” I persist. “Can you have the test run?”He shakes his head and gives me a patronizing smile. “Mrs. Calvalli, DNA testing costs money. Our department—”“How much?” I interrupt him.“Well ... That’s rather beside the point, isn’t it?”“I’ll pay for the test,” I say. I pull my checkbook. We stood there in the family room talking about good times in the past. I had always had a very good relationship with Mom. We talked about all kinds of things and were really very good friends. Our ideas on most things were very similar. Gradually the conversation became more personal. Mom hugged me again and told me how proud she was about my good grades in college. "You've always been such a good son," she said warmly. "I couldn't be more pleased with the way you've turned out--and so.