Winter Moon

his hand.
        "Why would Tommy's dad leave everything to me, for God's sake?"
        "That was one of the questions I asked Paul Youngblood. He says Tommy used to write to his dad about you, what a great guy you were. Talked about you like a brother. So with Tommy gone, his dad wanted you to have everything."
        "What do the other relatives have to say about that?"
        "There aren't any relatives." Jack shook his head. "But I never even met"-he consulted the letter- "Eduardo. This is crazy. I mean, Jesus, it's wonderful, but it's crazy.
        He gives everything to someone he hasn't even met?" Unable to remain seated, bursting with excitement, Heather got up and went to the refrigerator.
        "Paul Youngblood says the idea appealed to Eduardo because he inherited it eight years ago from his former boss, which was a total surprise to him too."
        "I'll be damned," he said wonderingly. She removed a bottle of champagne that she had hidden in the vegetable drawer, where Jack wouldn't see it before he heard the news and knew what they were celebrating. "According to Youngblood, Eduardo thought that surprising you with it… well, he seemed to see it as the only way he'd ever be able to repay his boss's kindness." When she returned to the table, Jack frowned at the bottle of champagne.
        "I'm like a balloon, I'm floating, bouncing off the ceiling, but.. at the same time…"
        "Tommy," she said. He nodded..Peeling the foil off the champagne bottle, she said, "We can't bring him back."
        "No, but…"
        "He'd want us to be happy about this."
        "Yeah, I know. Tommy was a great guy."
        "So let's be happy." He said nothing. Untwisting the wire cage that restrained the cork, she said, "We'd be idiots if we weren't." know"
        "It's a miracle, and just when we need one." He stared at the champagne. She said, "It's not just our future. It's Toby's too."
        "He can keep his teeth now." Laughing, Heather said, "It's a wonderful thing, Jack." At last his smile was broad and without reservation.
        "You're damn right it's a wonderful thing-now we won't have to listen to him gumming his food."
        Removing the wire from the cork, she said, "Even if we don't deserve so much good fortune, Toby does."
        "We all deserve it." He got up, went to a nearby cabinet, and removed a clean dish towel from a drawer. "Here, let me." He took the bottle from Heather, draped the cloth over it. "Might explode." He twisted the cork, it popped, but the champagne did not foam out of the neck of the bottle. She brought a couple of glasses, and he filled them. "To Eduardo Fernandez," she said by way of a toast. "To Tommy." They drank, standing beside the table, and then he kissed her lightly. His quick tongue was sweet with champagne.
        "My God, Heather, do you know what this meanst' They sat down again as she said, "When we go out to dinner the next time, it can be someplace that serves the food on real plates instead of in paper containers."
        His eyes were shining, and she was thrilled to see him so happy. "We can pay the mortgage, all the bills, put money away for Toby to go to college one day, maybe even take a vacation-and that's just from the cash. If we sell the farm-"
        "Look at the photographs," she urged, grabbing them, spreading them on the table in front of him. "Very nice," he said. "Better than very nice. It's gorgeous, Jack. Look at those mountains! And look at this one-look, from this angle, standing in front of the house, you can see forever!"
        He looked up from the snapshots and met her eyes. "What am I hearing?"
        "We don't have to sell it."
        "Live there?"
        "Why not?"
        "We're city people.". n:. ^: "And we hate it."."Angelenos all our lives."
        "Isn't what it once was." She could see that the idea intrigued him, and her own excitement grew as he began to come around to her point of view. "We've wanted change for a long time," he said.
        "But I was never thinking this much change."
        "Look at the photographs."
        "Okay, yeah, it's gorgeous. But what would we do there? It's a lot of money but not enough to last forever. Besides, we're young-we can't vegetate, we need to do something."
        "Maybe we can start a business in Eagle's Roost."
        "What sort of business?"
        "I don't know. Anything," she said. "We can go, see what it's like, and