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went away and got famous.”
    He couldn’t stop the grin. “Well, I went away.”
    â€œAnd you won a prize. Like Marcie’s brother won a trophy for bowling.”
    He thought of his Pulitzer and managed, barely, not to laugh. “Something like that.”
    To Clara he looked like a regular person, not someone who bounded around the world on adventures. Her eyes narrowed. “Did you really go to all those places like they said?”
    â€œThat depends on what they said.” In tacit agreement they began to walk together. “I’ve been to some places.”
    â€œLike Tokyo? That’s the capital of Japan, we learned that in school.”
    â€œLike Tokyo.”
    â€œDid you eat raw fish?”
    â€œNow and again.”
    â€œThat’s really disgusting.” But she seemed pleased all the same. She bent and scooped up snow without breaking rhythm. “Do they squish grapes with their feet in France?”
    â€œI can’t say I ever saw it for myself, but I’ve heard tell.”
    â€œI sure wouldn’t drink it after that. Did you ever ride a camel?”
    He watched her bullet the snowball into the base of a tree. “As a matter of fact, I did.”
    â€œWhat was it like?”
    â€œUncomfortable.”
    It was a description she readily accepted because she’d already figured it out for herself. “The teacher read one of your stories today. The one about this tomb they found in China. Did you see the statues?”
    â€œYes, I did.”
    â€œWas it like
Raiders
?”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œYou know, the movie with Indiana Jones.”
    It took him a minute, then he laughed. Without thinking, he tipped her cap over her eyes. “I guess it was, a little.”
    â€œYou write good.”
    â€œThank you.”
    They were standing on the sidewalk in front of her house. Jason glanced up, surprised. He hadn’t realized they’d come so far and found himself regretting he hadn’t slowed his pace a bit. “We have to do this report on Africa.” Clara wrinkled her nose. “It has to be five whole pages long. Miss Jenkins wants it in right after Christmas vacation.”
    â€œHow long have you had the assignment?” It hadn’t been that long since his school days.
    Clara drew a circle in the snow at the edge of her lawn. “Couple of weeks.”
    No, he realized with some pleasure, it hadn’t been so very long. “I guess you’ve started on it.”
    â€œWell, sort of.” Then she turned that quick, beautiful smile on him. “You’ve been to Africa, haven’t you?”
    â€œA couple of times.”
    â€œI guess you know all kinds of things about climate and culture and stuff like that.”
    He grinned down at her. “Enough.”
    â€œMaybe you should stay for dinner tonight.” Without giving him a chance to answer, she took his hand and led him around to the shop.
    When they walked in, Faith was boxing a doll. Her hair was pinned up in the back and she wore a baggy sweatshirt over jeans. She was laughing at something her customer had said. “Lorna, you know you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
    â€œBah, humbug.” The woman put a hand on her enormous stomach and sighed. “I really wanted this baby to make an appearance before Christmas.”
    â€œYou still have four days.”
    â€œHi, Mom!”
    Faith turned to smile at her daughter. As she spotted Jason, the spool of ribbon in her hand spun in a red stream to the floor. “Clara, you didn’t wipe your feet,” she managed to say, but kept her eyes on Jason.
    â€œJason! Jason Law.” The woman rushed over and grabbed him by both arms. “It’s Lorna—Lorna McBee.”
    He looked down into the pretty round face of his longtime neighbor. “Hello, Lorna.” His gaze drifted down, then back up. “Congratulations.”
    With a hand on her stomach,