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Show 153 the sea. For it was here that he was most himself, where the essence of him fully emerged. Suddenly, she felt very close to him. As if his presence were close by, disembodied in the air beside her. This is your kind of day, isn't it? When everyone else was inside, cooped up, you loved it out here, the isolation. She suddenly realized that she was speaking out loud-hurriedly she glanced around, but there was no one else on the dock. And when she turned back to the sea, he was gone. She waited. But he was gone, his presence. Now there was only the rain. By the time the turkey was done, Robbie was loaded. Not belligerent, but in that haze where another drink would make him so. She hurried the meal to the table. "Come on and eat," she said, "it's ready." He came in swaying, catching his balance against the back of a chair. She was suddenly angry that he was like this. After all her effort! It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair of him that he should be like this. But that wouldn't do any good, to feel that way. In the state he was in, her anger would just make him upset if he detected it. She drove it from her, forcing a smile on her face. "This looks good," he said, "this really looks good-great!" "Do you want to say grace?" He blinked at her. "Why don't you." He suddenly laughed. "I don't feel very graceful." She said the grace, he closing it with a loud "Amen," and they |
