When Dessie opened the door to Dr. Hall’s office, the darkness of night blanketed the vast prairie, and his lamplight shone in the window, like a tiny star in the vast blackness of the unending sky.  He welcomed her with a bowl of hot soup, a spoon stuck in the middle of the steamy food.

     “Looks good,” she praised him.  “I didn’t know you could cook.”

     “Well, some.  Enough to get me by and not starve,” Dr. Hall told her and waited with bated breath till she took her first bite of the soup.

     “Mmmmmm,” she said, taking her first spoonful, tasting it, then swallowing it.  “This is wonderful.  Almost as good as Ma’s.”  Dessie took...

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