As we surfaced, she swam into my arms. I could tell she had tears in her eyes. “Mark, you don’t have to reply and I don’t expect you to say anyt...ing, but I love you. I love the family and I love you. I always will. You have changed my life for the better in so many ways in such a short period of time.” She sounded so sincere and serious for an instant. She was looking deep into my eyes to be sure I heard her oath.I kissed her lips and said, “Well, you’re hard not to love. All of us, myself. I just forked out the necessary doe-ray-me until it happened) The lady who served me gave me a strangely quizzical look and then pursed her lips, pointing through the office over to the other little office window designed for the use of the kids. Seated on the bench against the wall was Mel, studiously staring at the ceiling. Thirty minutes later I met Tommy Harold, headmaster of the school, for the first time. He gave me a lecture on Mel's penal history and scholastic achievements; the former. “Hi Jeff,” she said in that comforting voice of hers as she reached out and shook my hand. “Young Emma here is an absolute dear. I think this is just what you’ll need for the situation.” She passed me a written prescription. “This should keep her going for three months. I will need to see her for a follow-up appointment. Would you be able to bring her in next week?”“Uh well, I’m going to England next week for an article I’m writing and for a graduation present, I’m taking Emma with me. I could. ..”“No going out?”“Oh, maybe ... Dinner. You’re in a stinkin’ hotel room. Me, I’m in my little cozy home where I can cook something. You have...”“Wait. I’m there in the middle of the woods and I’m ALONE?”“Y’know, I didn’t give that much thought. You, bein ‘ female...”“Nice of you to notice.” Smirk.“Makes me nervous. Where do you fall out on the scale from ‘delicate, helpless princess’ to ‘I am WOMAN, hear me roar’?”“Oh, you’re, like, always the same, every day? You don’t have moods? Bad.