Editing Party

I am so blessed to be surrounded by people who love me and are also like-minded. Some are more like-minded than others, naturally, which makes any grouping fascinating.

With a plate of food in her hand, Deborah went to join Tony near the fireplace where he was balancing a plate in one hand and the orange fluff ball in the other. "Well, my little man, what are you to be named? You have a legend to live up to."

"Oh, don't tell him he has to live up to Marco Polo! The poor baby will go hide under the bed and never come out again."

"Only until it's time to eat. He already has the women wrapped around his paw."

Suddenly Deborah chuckled. "I never dreamed when I challenged you to start defending your people instead of prosecuting them, that day twenty years ago that you'd actually do it, and end up being el jefe."

"Me either, but you sure made me think. So, how is this book writing coming?"

"Looks like we're about to find out. Here comes Annabelle Lee with a handful of papers. Tell her what you honestly think. You're not here to flatter her ego."

Tony looked a bit nonplussed as he handed the kitten off to his wife. "Here, it's your turn to play with the baby."

"Why don't you all sit down so it'll be easier to read what I wrote this afternoon. Sheila, don't you dare feed that kitten off your plate!"

"Yeah," Nicole agreed. "I'm the only one who gets to do that!"

"Neither of you gets to do that, unless you want to take him home with you."

Everybody else rolled their eyes, remembering how I had tried to keep all the girls, and Tony, from spoiling Marco Polo rotten, a battle I had lost.

Nicole helped me pass out papers. "So, are we being brutally honest here, or what?"

"Absolutely. The idea is for the finished product to be the best we can make it."

"Oh, my goodness!" Mary Lee exclaimed quietly. "You've captured him just the way I remember him. What do you think, Sheila?"

"Quite good, Auntie. I believe that was the elegant outfit he was wearing the day we interviewed him."

"And she even got that swagger to his walk," Mary Lee mused.

"You guys have the advantage over the rest of us," Nicole complained, "because you actually met him."

"That's true," Deborah agreed. "But maybe it's more important for those of us who didn't meet him to be intrigued by him. What do you think, Tony?"

"I'd definitely want to know who he was. There are lots of clues indicating he might have been Elvis, if a person had the slightest inclination to believe that he didn't really die on that August 17th. I think you've hooked the readers, Auntie. And now we know why you didn't have a single thing packed when Sheila and I got here. You had been remembering the past year instead of getting ready."

"Lord, yes," Sheila agreed. "We were slinging things into your suitcase like wild people, while you were gathering your astrology stuff together."

"Sheila, let me see that baby," Luz said. "I think this project is going to be so interesting. It was interesting when we first did these things, but I think now we can look back on it with more perspective."

Tony crossed one elegantly shod foot over the other knee. "I know you gals were absolutely enthralled with the Elvis stuff, but I will never forget the night when Sheila and Luz came back from one of your meetings and told me you had been solving a murder!"

"You didn't even believe us!" Sheila accused. "You had to call Auntie."

I smiled at that memory, and wondered how many more memories would be evoked before this project was completed. Looking around the room, I asked, "So do you think the Prologue is okay? At least for now?"

They all did. Step one has been made.