I will write again soon.Love as always, MariannaI sank back in the chair, looking at the letter, but not seeing. I don’t think I’d ever been as cr...shed as I felt at that moment. Perhaps I knew this was coming, but it was the reality of seeing it in print that brought it all home. It was over. There was no happy ending for me.I begged off staying for dinner. I don’t think I could have held it down. I drove home and sat in the kitchen, wondering what next. Gramma was the first to find. We relaxed after the meal with coffees and still made it back to the expressway before the evening rush "hour" started at about quarter to four. I tipped Cindy a Benjamin for her excellent service and took a nap after my heroic trencherman performance.After I woke I hit a UPS shop to mail my old cellphone to my ex-boss. I bought a legal pad there before returning home. I had some research to do and needed to make notes. Firstly, I had to pay a visit to the local branch bank to change my phone. You didn’t abide by such strict rules when you were in school twenty-five years ago.”“We had no need for these rules. We were taught proper behavior at home.”“As we’ve taught Cassie. But we are underestimating the response to the situation.” Cassandra returned to the table with a full plate. I don’t know where she puts so much food. She’s still thin as a rail. “Did you have a color in mind, dear? I know pale blue is very popular but I’ve also seen some of the girls in yellow. There are even a. ’ ‘I don’t think you’ll find them very fast. This gang has been harassing us shopkeepers for more than a year, and we’ve noticed that they dispose of trifles several weeks after the robbery. Moreover, they often smoke the items, probably in order to destroy fingerprints and DNA samples. By the way, my insurance has an excess clause of $5,000, and had I really been robbed, I’d have been short of them. So I’ll be more than willing to pay the $300 the widow’s eyeglasses will probably cost.’.