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"Abby, is this my fault?" he asked her. "If you didn't have me to consider, would you still quit your art? Please, be honest with me."

"Whether you were in Three Mile Bay, or not," replied Abby, "I would still have to make a living. Cheer up, Jake. I haven't been sentenced to the salt mines! I'm going to teach fly fishing. This is not an entirely bad thing," she added with a smile.

"How did the drawing lesson go?" asked Izumi, as they entered the kitchen, while she put dinner on the table.

"I want to talk to Dennis, tonight," announced Abby. "I'm going to become a fly casting instructor."

"When did this happen?" inquired the mother, sitting down to the table with Abby and Jake.

"A few minutes ago," replied Abby. "Jake and I talked it over, and we think that this is for the best."

"Wait a minute," objected the young man, "you talked it over, and you decided to give up art-- not me. I don't want Mom to think that I had anything to do with your giving up a lifelong dream!"

"What makes you think it was lifelong?" exclaimed Abby.

"Are you trying to tell me that it wasn't?" he challenged her.

Abby opened her mouth to contradict him, but quickly closed it again.

"Okay," she admitted, "I'm disappointed! But even I can see the handwriting on the wall! I think this is what God wants me to do. Just look at the Providence of Dennis Beckman's arrival. It's obvious that God is trying to tell me something."

"Yeah," mumbled Jake under his breath, "to stay away from the marina!"

"Dennis is a nice guy," Abby reminded him.

"I suppose he is," conceded Jake, "but do you have to train with him?"

"What's wrong with that?" asked Abby.

"He smiles too much," frowned Jake.

"Is that all you have against him?"

"I guess so," he muttered.

"Then," Abby wondered, "must we have a big debate over this?"

"I won't stand in your way," replied the young man. "You're free to do what you feel is best."

Izumi looked at her daughter, her face betraying how bewildered she was by the whole conversation.

"Well," shrugged Abby, "at least we're communicating."

"Dr. Jacoby would approve," grinned Jake.

That evening, Abby drove to the boarding house where Dennis was staying. She found the instructor out on the front lawn, enjoying the company of a pretty young woman who was trying most unsuccessfully to execute a simple backcast.

"Well, well," smiled Dennis, as he saw her walking towards them, "did you come here to argue some more, or to give in?"

"To give in," answered Abby. "I didn't mean to interrupt anything important, though."

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