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Page 108
he said, a fond expression softening his gray eyes. ''She was sweet, but with the sharpness of broken glass and talons of a falcon. She wove a spell around me with stories I couldn't forget, so I never wanted to leave, just as she planned. While I was in school, I did many a repair on the old home she lived in with my other great-aunt Jess."
"Aunt Myra sounds like quite the conniver. Do you still take care of their house?"
A shadow darkened his face. His voice was thick with emotion. "Now I pay to have it repaired. Poor Jess wouldn't know the difference between hired fixes and the TLC of someone who's concerned, and we lost Myra six years ago."
"I'm sorry," Abby said softly, guessing that TLCstill more initials!was something good. "What stories did she tell that enchanted you so?"
"I don't want to talk about them now." The darkness had turned into his usual blank unreadability, and he said nothing more. Still, Abby sensed a pang of loneliness and regret that could only have come from deep inside him.
He turned on the machine he called a radio, and music poured forth. Abby reveled in the delightful soundand the way people who spoke between songs seemed as excited as she to discover the wonders of modern cold remedies, bank loans that made one rich, and something called mouthwash that sounded like a love potion. To think that such miracles should be available to everyone!

 
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