Finally, the nurse showed up. Middle-aged black woman, looking a bit tired. “You’re here with Mister Fontenot?” she asked.“Yes, ma’am,” I ...aid.“You know he’s still groggy.”“Post-surg,” I said. “What’s the deal? Meds?”“Infectious isolation protocol,” she said. “You can visit, but you wash your hands with that sanitizer every time you come and go, and if you touch him. Nothing carried in ... Well, cellphone, okay? But he doesn’t touch it. And he’s gonna stay on the IV. We’re piggybacking some. We helped load some of the decorations and clean up a bit then went out to get in my truck for the ride home. By then, the weather had changed and become colder and rain had begun to pour down. After a mad dash to the truck I turned up the heater and she snuggled close as I pulled out of the parking lot. She looked like a nearly drowned puppy as she curled against me to get warm, water dripping from her previously styled hair and the dim light sparkling in her soft brown eyes. Her hand. ‘Geez Christi, don’t you have any imagination? Just say hi. Make small talk. Say you remember him. Make sure he remembers you. Butter him up a little. You can do THAT, can’t you?’ Christi sighed. ‘Geez. I guess. He’s not that nice of a guy to chit chat with. Kind of a know-it-all asshole.’ ‘Then he’ll want to be flattered. Tell him how impressed you were with how smart he was. Ask for homework help or something.’ ‘Oh god, that sounds like fun.’ ‘Well, would you rather quit school and go. If they did, they'd be ignored by everybody, and we'd tell the other girls to ignore them too. It hadn't happened today, but it was obviously what had to be done.My last conversation of note before we left was with Savannah. When I'd first assigned her to Carol I'd intended to have a talk with her before we went home, but during the afternoon I'd changed my mind and had decided to ignore her as a way of making her feel even more insecure. She needed it, as she was far too secure about her sex.