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"It's so hard to come here and not see my mother." she said. Her dark eyes skipped nervously about the kitchen, "Even now, I expect her to appear, maybe come in through the French doors, wearing one of those ridiculous garden hats."

"I miss her," I said.

My mother nodded. "I know you do."

Our eyes met. How I wished we could love each other like a mother and a daughter should.

"Why are you letting Victoria tell you what to do?" I asked her.

"Victoria has always been the practical one, the sensible one. R

ain. Maybe that was because she had a different upbringing, a different kind of education. My father didn't send her to boarding school for the rich, nor did he have her sent to a girls' finishing school. She went to business college and learned about stocks and bonds and options and such stuff. whereas I was taught polite rules of social etiquette, things to prepare me for high society. Maybe that was why I was so rebellious in college. I wasn't taught anything practical. I was designed to marry someone like Grant and always have a husband to take care of me and make these sort of decisions.

"Please think more about all this, honey. We really could be something of a family you know." Her teary eyes were beseeching, her soft smile trying to assure me that a pot of gold waited at the end of this soon-to-be rainbow.

I sighed. for I would so much like to be the eternal optimist. but I didn't believe in the magic of rainbows, especially the ones she promised.

"You shouldn't have brought me here. Mother, Grandmother Hudson was one of the few people in my life who loved me and whom I loved. Love means honoring and respecting someone. too. She taught me that. I won't take her wishes and plans for me and tear it all up just to satisfy your sister. She never loved Grandmother Hudson as much as I did in the short time I was able to know her."

Unwilling to deny that, my mother nodded.

"I didn't need to see what she had done with her will to know how much she loved you. Rain."

"Then you should understand," I said. I turned away but she walked over to me.

"You're a good girl, Rain. I truly wish only good things for you.

I want you to be happy and put all this behind you. Be sensible. You'd be better off away from all of us anyway," she said sadly.

She hugged me quickly and then started out, stopping in the doorway.

"Call me if you need me." she said.

I watched her walk down the hallway and out the door.

"That call was made a long time ago, Mother," I muttered after she had left.

"And you never answered."

3

Riding the Wind

.

The telephone rang so early the next morning. I

thought it was ringing in my dreams. Whoever was calling didn't give up. Finally, my eyelids unglued and I realized I wasn't imagining it. As I reached over for the phone. I looked at the clock and saw it was only five-thirty.

"Hello." I said, my voice so groggy and deep. I thought someone else had said it for me.

"Rain?" I heard. "Is that you?"

I scrubbed my cheek with my palm and pulled myself up in the bed.

"Roy?"

"I'm sorry I'm calling you so early there, but it's the only chance I'll have, maybe for days," he said, "How are you?"'