“Have you had any word at all?” Lila Harrison poured another cup of tea for her friend and next-door neighbor, Lauren Olenteas.

“Not even a message through my parents. And the longer Ric waits, the unhappier he gets. I know he’s trying hard not to show it, but he's just waiting for a summons to go home. And with some amount of honor intact.”

Lila grinned. “Well, at least he won’t desert you.”

“Of course not! We’re a package deal. Take him, take me.” Lauren chuckled but then sighed. “But I think he's waiting for something that will never come. I've told him to go, but he won't. Maybe now that we’re here and you’re so close, he will."

Lila sipped her tea thoughtfully as she looked at her friend. Lauren, an attractive woman in her early thirties, with long, luxurious dark hair and penetrating, cold brown eyes, seemed to most as cool and aloof, removed from her surroundings. This caused casual acquaintances to think her haughty, arrogant, and uncaring - that is, until she smiled. On those rare occasions when she did smile, it had dazzling warmth that lit up her entire face, making her quite beautiful.

“Perhaps you’ll be summoned. I always thought that this was a temporary situation.”

Lauren laughed bitterly. "I hardly think so. I’m about as popular as the Ebola virus or SARS. Nope, there's no going home for me.”

She looked around and tried to change the topic to mini-blinds, but before Lila could answer, a commotion spilled from the hallway into the kitchen as Lila’s son and daughters burst into the room.

At once, her younger daughter Lisa, a petulant thirteen-year-old, started crying. “Mom, make them take me too. They’re going to the mall, and he won't let me come along.” She stuck her tongue out at her older brother, Mark. She was small, with straight strawberry blond hair cut to her shoulders. Her blue eyes were red-rimmed and furiously focused on Mark as if he were the cause of all the trouble in her life.

Lila tried to reason with her 20-year-old. “Mark, why won't you take Lisa to the mall with you? Is it so much to ask that I be allowed to entertain a guest without having to do extra time as a U.N. Peacekeeping force?”

“Mom,” Mark answered patiently. "She wants to go to the mall and annoy us. I'm only dropping Diana off there to meet Jim, and then I’m off to Scott's to play pool. No one’s going to be around to play with the baby.”

Lisa, seeing red, was about to retort furiously when 18-year-old Diana interjected. “Don't worry, Lisa. We'll go shopping tomorrow.”

The girl’s face crumpled into tears, and she ran from the room, screaming, "That's what you say now, and then you won’t! Nobody wants me around!"

Diana exchanged a long look with her mother before reluctantly following her sister from the room. Lila looked after her elder daughter in undisguised pride. Not only was Diana a beauty with her lovely chestnut hair and dark eyes, but she possessed a calm temperament and keen insight into people. At times she seemed so much older than her years.

If only...

But Lila Harrison stopped that line of thought.

Instead, she turned her attention to her son, who was attempting to appear untroubled by the family quarrel and leaning casually on the door-frame. He was a tall, strapping young man, nearly six foot two inches. He towered over his sisters and used his height as an advantage to demand obedience. His dark hair and blue eyes were set in a healthy, tanned face. He knew he was fairly good-looking, but that didn’t affect his relations with other people. He was warm, friendly, and trusting, with an easy-going nature - except with Lisa. The charm and manners that had made him popular and secure vanished if she uttered just one ill-spoken word against him.

“Now, Mark,” his mother asked in fond exasperation, “why didn't you just tell her what was going on? You could have avoided this.”

Mark looked down sheepishly, suddenly aware that Lauren had seen the whole drama, and worse, he’d come off badly. Being scolded by his mother didn’t help either. He really wanted to get to know Lauren Olenteas and was glad that his mother was renewing an old acquaintance.

It’s all Lisa's fault, he thought. She needed control and discipline, but no one except he ever seemed to see that the indulgences the girl had received as a young child, due to severe health problems, had created a monster.

As a soon-to-be college junior, Mark felt his parents should have consulted him about their child-rearing techniques. Diana was fine. In fact, he was looking forward to having her join him at the university during his senior year.

"She never gave me a chance. As soon as I asked Diana if she was ready to go, Lisa started making demands. I just lost it.”

Lila walked over to him. "Honey, promise me when we leave in a couple days to see your father’s son in Europe, and you’re in charge, you'll control yourself and not lose it with Lisa. She's at an awkward stage. You’re going to have to be able to control your temper because she won't be able to control hers. Lisa acts on passion and doesn't always think through her actions. She needs guidance, not censure.” She surprised him by pulling him into a warm embrace. “Now promise me you’ll try to deal fairly with her.”

Mark's muffled voice was reluctant and embarrassed. "OK, I promise.”

Lila smiled and let him go.

Lauren, who had remained silent throughout the interlude, added, "It’s lucky we moved in when we did. If you have any trouble, Ric and I are right next door. We'd be more than happy to help out in any way.”

"Oh, um, thanks…" While he appreciated Lauren's offer, Mark was leery of Ric, her…whatever he was. Ric was a huge man, with ice-blue eyes and the chiseled features of an ancient Viking, at least half-a-foot taller than Mark and built on heroic lines. He was an artist and sold paintings and sculptures in the small shop Lauren owned in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Mark felt there was something very different about him, something like a caged, wild animal. He imagined those large, capable hands were more attuned to swinging a two-handed ax rather than holding brushes and clay. He was nervous any time he was around the older man.

Lauren grinned wickedly as if reading his thoughts. "Well, the offer stands. Lila, I know you have a ton of stuff to do. Have a great time, and we'll have you over for dinner when you get back so you can bore us to tears with a slideshow.”

The two women chuckled and hugged tightly, and Lauren smiled at Mark as she walked past him and out the back door. Mark watched her cut through the backyard to her own and was immediately puzzled.

Instead of walking straight across the lawn, she made a half-circle and avoided the middle of the grassy yard altogether.

Before he could think of mentioning this, his mother asked him a question, and he forgot about it.