Chapter 175

• I was soon bustling around in the kitchen and talking to my staff at eh Centre in Japan. We had planned to set up a new center in one of the smaller towns and there were logistical problems. My friend and erstwhile assistant, Alex Wu was beside himself, trying to do things on his own. I knew he would manage but he was a person who sometimes needed to have his hand held.
• Chicken taquitos served on a bed of lettuce topped with sauce, salsa and cheese; that was our dinner for tonight. I knew that my twins and Paddy relished it and I went about, preparing it with of course, Beatrice grumpily hovering; the old woman would have liked me to be in bed and resting. But with anxious Alex and my own obsession to see that dinner was done just so, it was not possible.
• I smiled and kissed the old woman, giving her a gentle hug as I spoke to Alex consolingly. Sophie wandered into the kitchen and I smiled at her but my conversation was too intense. Fleetingly, I wondered why she had come. She was cool and indifferent, on the few occasions I had rung up to speak to her, she had seemed clipped and unfriendly.