Ps don’t let anyone see you open this and hide it quickly.’Well I looked around and no one could see me, so I opened it. It was a big wooden book ...nd on the front was that year’s family portrait. I remember Mom forcing Dad and I to wear matching shirts and ties and then dragging us both down to the photo studio. Mom looked great though. She had chosen a white dress, it was strapless, and it was short and sexy. I remember the photographer having Mom cross her legs several times before he took. Of course he was there, but then all the ancestors were there every time people had sex. It’s just that she had a vivid memory that proved what was just theoretical to other people.As events developed, she was thankful to him. Her daughter Veronica, at age 20, had fallen in with a very bad bunch of people. Guys who ran a meth lab. She was having sex with one of the guys, who started getting violent. Then with two guys -- without protection.Her dad had listened in, in impotent rage and with what. "I have never seen anything like this before!"Tristan smiled. "OK, this way." He led her past the shops to a large department store. Progress was slow because she wanted to examine each shop window in turn. Tristan smiled to himself. What is it with women and shopping? She came from a completely different planet, and yet he might just as well have been with Sarah. They had drawn level with the main entrance of a large store when an ambulance drove past and started its siren as it drew level. Richie suddenly yanked Melinda forward and plunged her hand into her mother's figure."Richie, what the fuck?! Ohmigod, it's like she's a gh--"Her thoughts were again frozen, this time to make way for others. ... has nothing worked? Four speech therapists now. Four. And a neurologist. No one can tell me why she can't lose this lisp. Oh, God, she's so miserable. I can't remember the last time I saw her smile. I have to do something. I can't let her suffer. I... Melinda staggered back,.