Wesley went on exining a bit more about his associates. "Curtis is the principal of a university. Among the three of them, Damon is always idle and Carlos is always busy. That leaves you with an interesting choice. Damon iszy too. If it is not urgent, you can call him. If it is important, call Carlos because he likes to be prompt. Even if he doesn''t have time, he will have someone else help you."


    "Okay, sure," ir replied shortly. To be frank, it didn''t matter who, among the three of them, was there for her. She only wanted Wesley''s help.


    Since wherever Wesley needed to be was urgent and he had to get back to base as soon as possible, he stopped the car in front of their apartment building and nodded at ir. After watching her walk inside, he turned his car around and drove away.


    It had been such a brief meeting...


    In A Country


    Baldwin waited ten-odd days before he went to Keith to talk about Niles. His initial n to see Keith the day after he and Cecelia had talked had been waid by unforeseen circumstances. Out of the blue, one of Keith''srades-in-arms had passed away; Keith had gone to the man''s hometown to attend the funeral.


    The man had been a good friend to him, so when Keith came back, he was very sad. For the next few days, he had been moody and down.


    One day, while they were having dinner, Cecelia brought up Niles. When his name was mentioned, it reminded Baldwin of what had happened between ir and Niles, so he remarked to Keith, "Dad, Niles seems to have been rather quiettely."


    Keith was busy piling some food onto his te. When he heard that, he paused and turned to Baldwin. "Isn''t that normal for him?" The old man was under the impression that Niles might be still overjoyed with the property ownership certificate.


    "No, it isn''t. He doesn''t like ir, and ir doesn''t like him. But Cecelia made a mistake and tried to force the two of them together. In fact, she even scolded him unfairly. But what''s surprising is that as far as I know, he hasn''t been sad at alltely. Instead, he has been in quite a good mood. That''s what I find strange," Baldwin exined. He hadn''t exactly meant "quiet" in the literal sense.


    Keith put down his chopsticks and asked him calmly, "What did you say? Repeat your second sentence."


    Baldwin was confused. "What? Which sentence? The one about Niles not liking ir?"


    "Yes," Keith responded tly.


    Baldwin and Cecelia exchanged puzzled nces. Baldwin then exined what he had meant. "Cecelia and I talked about Niles and ir and concluded that they didn''t like each other. But we have a feeling that ir an


    an imbecile!"


    Niles thought about it and got a clue. "Wait. Grandpa, tomorrow... No! Today only, I''ll register the house in your name. Please don''t be mad at me," he pleaded. ''Come on! Has Grandpa found out so quickly?'' he thought.


    Keith snorted and ignored his pitiful plea. By that time Baldwin was back in the study with a surprisingly thick leather whip, a ruler, and a stick.


    "Pick one!" Keith ordered.


    Niles looked at the whip. The sight of it made him tremble. "Grandpa, a single strike from that whip will kill me!" He shifted his eyes to the stick.


    He then continued, "Grandpa, the discipline stick used to be called an inhuman tool. It''s barbaric. We live in a civilized society now. We should adopt civilized methods to discipline the children. Shouldn''t we?" The discipline stick and ruler had never been too far away from Niles'' childhood. He knew clearly how much they hurt. And they were bad!


    "Shut up! What a load of crap! I am disciplining my grandson. What do I need civilization for? Now then. You don''t think the first two are good choices? No matter, it will be the ruler then. Baldwin, hit him so he won''t lie to me again."


    Niles covered his head with both his hands and pleaded, "Grandpa! You''re my biological grandfather! Do you really have the heart to beat me? It''s only a house. I''ll give it back to you. I didn''t do anything else wrong. So can you please forgive me this time?"


    "Mmm, what you say does make sense. All right, Baldwin! A hundred times on the palms and another hundred on the butt, and skip the mouth," Keith ordered.


    Niles did the math in his head. ''Two hundred?'' The realization almost gave him a heart attack. "Grandpa! Please! My hands are important to me. They are supposed to hold scalpels."