Sounding wrung out and defeated, she informed me that The Virgin had relayed to her that we were to go forward boldly and we would be under her protection. Feeling somewhat less confident than Celine, I pulled out onto Highway 101, heading for home, keeping as far to the right side of the pavement as I could. About three hours later I pulled into a parking spot behind our building, having come to the attention of no police agency. Celine looked at me, utterly dejected, “All those beautiful babies,” she said. “I’ll never see any of them again.” There was nothing to say to that. I helped her inside and we fell into an exhausted sleep. Early the next morning I gave a neighbor a couple of my Viet Namese joints to help me push the van over a few streets over from our home. We parked it on Clayb
