”Lauren grinned and held up her left hand, wiggling her fingers and showing the teen her new ring. “We need to talk to Jimmy and Holly.”Heather ...asped and brought her hands up to cover her mouth. “Oh my God! ... You ... is that? ... oh my God!”Lauren placed a finger over her lips. “Sshhh! Don’t say anything. I want to tell them.”Heather smiled at Peter and Lauren, then went to the stairs. “Hey guys! Come on down! Right now!”Little Holly was the first one down, and she came roaring down the. ” Said Cletus as he handed out the caps to all the people entering the room. Once the teens heard that they all quickly secured the caps to their heads with little complaint.“Are you sure it’s safe Cletus?” Ms. Lander asked before entering the room.“It’s damned near foolproof Ms. Lander!” Replied Cletus. “Now watch as I run the first chicken through the machine.”The first chicken in guided through the chute with blasts of air that gets it moving into the room. The chicken calmly pecks its way. At least until the fire is out and you try to rebuild what was consumed.Even then, it won’t be like it was originally. It can’t be.The seriousness of the situation was not lost on either of us. We knew we couldn’t just keep running, trying to dodge the monster rampaging through our lives.To end the analogy, we sought refuge, hiding from the beast, by staying away from each other.Neither of us was happy, though.Hannah went out with Steve three more times before he broke up with her. He had to. Although the surface of the pool was below his sight-line he could see the swimmers' progress by the water being kicked up. He turned back to Andy and said incredulously, "Good heavens! You have a full-sized pool? Way up here!?" Sure do," Andy replied casually. Then she asked, "Would you like to do a few laps before dinner? I'm sure the girls wouldn't mind your company."Bill quickly declined.Then they talked about Bill's background from Indiana, through Yale, the Army and then the Harvard.