Leftover Baggage from Llanview

17

Dorian:

December. After our adventurous Thanksgiving night, the rest of Thanksgiving weekend passed fairly quietly and much to my relief, peacefully.

Cassie, Andrew, Blair, Kelly, Zane, Lance and Jack braved the nearby mall crowds to do a bit of Black Friday shopping late Friday morning.

I myself slept late Friday morning, then read for a few hours, still a bit drained from Thursday night.

I'm not sure I'll ever understand how most people I know can go through an active night, then get up early the next morning and plunge back into the world of people.

After a night like Thursday night or after a very busy day or big event, I feel so drained, often strained and need more time to regroup alone.

Cole is likely to be released from the hospital next week and go into a physical rehab facility. He's likely to be there two or three months.

Marty has a slight bout of hypothermia, frostbite on two fingers and a brief flare up of lupus, so she's likely to stay in the hospital as long as Cole before she can go home.

Addie finds out through a call to the hospital late that week that it's John McBain and Bo Buchanan who take her back home to Llanview once she recovers and is released.

Starr tells us that although Marty talked about Cole still being alive, no one in Llanview, not even John or Bo believed her.

Much to my relief, I only have one nightmare that week, one not too hideous.

Washington is bright now with holiday decorations all over the city and the National Christmas tree will be up and lit next week.

By late in the week, the weather has turned from cool and autumny to chillier with more windy weather.

That Friday evening a week after Thanksgiving, Risa and I help the house staffers decorate our own home for the holidays.

Two staffers eat with us that night and afterwards, the four of us put up a blue and silver decorated tree in our living room with a silver tinsel koosh ball on top.

The following week is Carlotta's birthday, so I invite her to meet me to have dinner at the restaurant of her choice the following Saturday.

To my delight, she has moved out of Llanview to Delaware this past week and is managing one of her diners there.

So, we are able to talk during a work break and agree to meet in Baltimore where I offer to treat her to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants, a Mediterranean place.

I invite Risa, but she has a study session for finals with three friends that entire weekend.

Carlotta and I are meeting at one, so I decide to drive up to Baltimore a bit early, so I have time to look around.

Parking at the restaurant about a half hour early, I decide to walk around the block, enjoying the brisk air and looking at the holiday decorations.

Today is not windy and it's sunny, but it is chilly. I wonder if we'll get snow for the holidays this year...Hanukkah was over Thanksgiving this year.

At ten to one, I head back to the restaurant and let the maître d' know to expect a party of two.

Unlike Tina and the other Buchanan-Lord clowns back in Llanview, I know Carlotta won't be late without an excellent reason.

There is about a fifteen-minute wait for a table, so I sit in the vestibule, which has an elegant Turkish mural on the high ceiling that I admire.

Five minutes later, a familiar voice calls, "Dorian...?"