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Gemma’s mother had rented the largest ballroom in the fanciest hotel in town. It was up in the foothills where all the rich people build multi-million dollar houses on big desert lots, and then end up complaining about how many coyotes and javelina and rattlesnakes they have on their property. You see stories in the paper all the time about people’s little toy poodles disappearing, or the fire department having to come out to “relocate” a diamondback rattler, or gangs of javelina that chase innocent people out walking their dogs in the early mornings. Nature is great, except when you think you’re living in a city.
The hotel parking lot was already packed when they arrived, so Lydia had to take one of the far away spots at the bottom of a hill. The two of them got out to walk.
Lydia h
