She finally released me and tried to smile at me through her tears. Then she took her daughter from Mr. Bartlett's arms and walked away.We watched her...for a few seconds before Mr. Bartlett sighed."She's taking this hard, blaming herself for everything." He looked at me. He looked tired, and I guessed they probably had gone through some rough nights in their home. "She really is grateful to you. We all are. Maybe we can talk later, when emotions aren't so raw."I nodded again."Thank you, Mr.. If you call me and you want me to leave I will, I know your mum and dad won’t be happy (understatement!) but I can’t do this to you, it’s not fair”. She fell silent and I realised that she had been gripping my hand so tight that her knuckles had gone white. She released my hand. I was so shocked by the implications of what she had just said that I had to take a moment to collect my thoughts. Lucy reached for her cigarettes and lit one with a shaking hand. I said, “Thank you for what you said.. ” Her nipples were fully involved now, rosy, dark and puckered, jutting out proudly like they were in the photos. I leaned back to admire them, and a random though crossed my mind. I looked up at her. “Can I ask you a question?”Her eyes had been closed again, her mind focused on sensations and pleasure; now she opened them. “If you must; I’m kind of busy here, in case you hadn’t noticed.”“Oh, I noticed, trust me. It’s about the pictures…”“You want to talk about that now? Unbelievable!”“Just one. " Splendid. You'll both have a real cocktail," I muttered as looked aroundto see if ghost Janet was lurking anywhere. Nothing."Cock-tail, I get it. That's clever, Ned," Jack said and surprised me byslapping me on the back. OH NO. Please don't say... "Hey, why does theback of your shirt feel funny?"Before he could grab it again, I backed away. "I'm wearing um a heatingbandage for my back. I slept funny," I nervously lied. "Hey, we're almostup. You might want to fix the liquor in your pants. It's.