Alex cross's last case. Yet another great book in the sequence


“ Keep your small mind open, ”said Nana, “That's if you ever want it to grow bigger, and don't want to remain a small person all your life.”



There's nothing like an attempt on your life to get you properly focused and to get the blood boiling.


Seems there was this man who lived in Southern California, around San Diego I believe it was. He had a family, nice family, and he worked very hard, long hours, lots of weekends. Sound familiar?”
“Probably familiar to a lot of people,” I said. “Men and women. Go ahead, though, Nana. This hardworking man with the extraordinarily nice family living outside San Diego. What happened to him?”
“Well anyway, this man had a kindly grandfather who adored both him and his family. He'd noticed that his grandson was working too hard, and he was the one who told him about the marbles. He told it this way. He said that the average life span for men was around seventy-five years. That meant thirty-nine hundred Saturdays to play when you were a kid, and to be with your family when you got older and wiser.”
“I see,” I said. “Or to play once you got older. Or even to give lectures to anyone who'll listen.”
“Shush, Alex. Now, listen. So the grandfather figured out that his grandson, who was forty-three, had about sixteen hundred and sixty Saturdays left in his life. Statistically speaking. So what he did was he bought two large jars and filled them with beautiful cat's-eye marbles. He gave them to his grandson. And he told him that every Saturday, he should take one marble out of the jar. Just one, and just as a reminder that he only had so many Saturdays left, and that they were precious beyond belief. Think about that, Alex. If you have the time,” said Nana.


Nana Mama always used to say, “Laugh before breakfast, cry before dinner.” If you raise a family, you know there's some truth to that, crazy as it sounds.


The road to hell,” she said. “Paved with good intentions.”