.. assign a council of post menopausal grandmother residents of each county ... they know everybody,” I suggested. “Beside that ... they have an a...e to grind.”“Axe?”“Grandfathers.”“Ah ... I see.”“You could even have elections ... what?”“They’ll buy their way in.”“Maximum of three months between start to finish... 11 hundred dollars limit on campaigning expenditures.”“I’ll give it a think.” She asked, “David? Is the Basilisk ready?”David said. “I stocked the basics, fuel, water, there’s some. Make up your mind. You know, you've become the American ideal. You have no responsibility for anything you do. It's always somebody else's fault."Why did everybody have to give me such a hard time? They made me selfish. You'd think she would understand. "You always take his side. Why can't you support me for a change?" You come and tell me he cheated on you and I'll tell you he's a rotten bastard. Do you really expect me to condone what you've done? I can't even think of enough adjectives to. We said goodbye to our other dinner companions, but I lingered at the table. Lynn took my clue. I asked if she had checked out the hotel’s pool. She said she had looked at it, but had not gone in. I said, “The night is still young.” After some mild protest, so as not to look to eager, she agreed to meet me in the pool in an half an hour. I got to the pool before she did. I wanted to look manly, so when she arrived she saw me doing laps. As I was busy doing laps, I didn’t see her enter the. "Liz will be home for Christmas," Mom added at the end.I felt a warm glow. This would be perfect.Part, or most of the reason I was lonely was because of Rick, dick, or whatever I wanted to call him, some of them not very complimentary. I'd joined the company in part because I liked the idea of having all sorts of recreational sex in the town, but mostly so we could be together.Things hadn't quite worked out the way I'd thought. I was about as celibate as a girl could get, and I was too busy to.