30
Paps Wallace led Connie into mayhem.
More and more people swirled around John, all talking at once. A tall, slender woman was tucked under each arm in a tight hug. One graying, the other his own age. If the family resemblance weren’t so strong, she’d feel jealous at how he held them and how they leaned their heads on his shoulders.
A man only a few inches shorter than John was thumping him on the chest in greeting. Two kids, three, four swirled about their feet. She kept trying to count them but they moved too fast, clearly caught up in the excitement.
An old man, gone lean and spare with age, sat where he clearly commanded the room, presiding from an old armchair that might match the years of the man it bore. Knitted pads of summer colors covered the arms. A small table by his elbo
