Dear Lucille,How did your Xmas turned out? I hope you enjoyed your dinner appointment.It was some relief to receive the good news that you had talked with I____ and Shayne after calling the number I gave you. Nobody here wanted to crack eggshells by trying to call Shayne after that, but before you called I had called her number twice without any success. Your achievement gives a glimmer of hope but we still have to push on.... For instance, after your call, neither Shayne nor I____ got in touch with me, so the urgency of the situation might not have been realized by them. Or it may be that they tried to but could not reach us. Certainly something is wrong with the phone connection from this house and possibly from Thomas' office phone in Rotterdam. Eventually, I hope we can find a resolution. But I have to push on because if Shayne can get away with missing a visit to this house during the month of December, it will be an excuse for her to miss visiting this house for all subsequent Xmas'es. That is the way the enemy gains ground. He always breaks a rule and gets away with it the first time. The next time, there can be no argument. I have to push on...I want to see Shayne with my own eyes. Apparently, there are a number of important matters that she must discuss with Thomas and me, one of them being her school enrollment. Another one being her monthly stipend, etc. As far as the information I could get by calling her places of employment, she does not have a heavy schedule during this time. No one could assure me when she would be coming in. I have to push on....a voice is not a reliable means of identification, because the girl who answered Shayne's phone one time (when Shayne was not there) sounded rather like Shayne. So I won't be satisfied until I see her with my own eyes. The other point is, that this modus operandus for communicating and keeping in touch is not adequate. One is never too old to tell relatives that one expects to be traveling or going far away. You do it. I do it. Everyone else does that. Faulty telephone apparatus should not justify Shayne being typecast as a completely uncooperative and stupid person, because you have to be stupid (or a hostage) to think you should hide that sort of information. It might prove useful if you could manage another call to her sometime this week and just mention to Shayne that Thomas and I have gone to the police with the matter. Never before, when we threatened to take the matter to the police has she refused to turn up. And we don't want to change that attitude. The closing of the ranks of some of the institutions (including the opening msn page on the Internet) and places she deals with portends that this is still and really is a serious drama and it needs to change in the future. (And, if at all possible, ask her if she remembers who her teacher was at Indianola Elementary School? And can she say who Sybil was? Or ask her something about a gift you might have given her once, long ago? Something that will help me to know it is her. The answers to questions like these examples might help me to be more reassure.) Basically, she needs to come by or arrange for an appointment for us to meet her somewhere or pick her up by car.In the future, I think I might can improve the communication system. But, you know, Shayne should know that we always expect to talk with her at least once in the month of December.Sincerely,