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MY GUESTBOOK
�How long have you known Josh?�
�Forever. Noah and I grew worked for the same law firm when we were just starting out after law school. I was best man at his wedding to Rachel and I was there when Josh and Joanie were born. After Joanie died Josh stayed with Jenny and me for a few months. It was all just too much for Noah and Rachel. They almost split up. Josh doesn�t know about this, of course. No one wanted to tell him. They worked it out, for Josh�s sake, but I don�t think things were good between them until Noah got sick.�
This shocked me. From everything I�d heard Noah and Rachel Lyman were the most together couple in the world. �Josh never knew?� I asked, amazed. I couldn�t see anyone keeping a secret from Josh Lyman, especially something as big as a marriage falling apart.
�He threw himself into school after the fire. Not an easy task considering he was in kindergarten when it happened,� Leo said with a smile of paternal pride. �After Mal was born� Josh would have been about ten at the time� he was constantly coming over to our house for the weekends. Rachel and Noah encouraged it because it gave them time that they didn�t have to pretend and Jenny and I enjoyed it because Josh was so good with Mallory. She was a fussy baby, but then Josh would come by and he�d play music and pretend to conduct with a pencil or knitting needle or whatever was handy and Mal would just watch him for hours.�
�Conducting?�
�Joanie�s influence,� Leo explained. �She wanted to be an orchestra conductor. She would have been great at it, too. Timing like a metronome, that one. Couldn�t sing worth a darn but that never stopped her from doing it anyway,� he said with a smile. �Rachel couldn�t stand to hear Joanie�s songs after the fire� classical music of any kind made her remember the night she lost her baby girl. Josh didn�t understand why he got in trouble for playing Ava Maria, but eventually he stopped listening to music unless he was with Mallory.�
�Did you ever wonder if he was transferring his feelings of guilt to Mallory?�
�I knew it for a fact, but Rachel and Noah sent him to a shrink and other than some understandable confusion on why his sister had to die Josh was a healthy kid. I know it worried Jenny a bit, but I like it. Knowing that Josh would be there to protect Mal when I couldn�t, that she would have a big brother to turn to for the things that you just don�t tell your parents� it was a comfort.�
�I can imagine,� I nodded.