I smiled when I saw Laura meld her body with John, and they kissed. John slid his hand down to pat her butt. Laura slapped his arm playfully as John m...ved his hand to a more modest place in the small of her back.During the first dance with Stan, we danced close and moved around the dance floor. By the middle of the second song, we were hardly moving, swaying back and forth, holding each other tightly. Our cheeks pressed together. My hands moved on his back as he nuzzled my neck. One hand on my. He was a no-nonsense sort of fellow and laid down the facts of life early on in my life. That was shortly after I buried my parents and older sister. They had died in a car crash and blind luck had kept me home that day. So it was my gnarly old grandfather that raised me these last twelve years. If I wanted something I worked for it. So he figured I could beat my diagnosis with sheer willpower alone. He was wrong.I didn't moan and bitch. What was the point of that? I just made a list and. .."I stopped, aghast. Had I just said... ?Lauren was looking at me with wide eyes."Um, was that in my out-loud voice?" I tried jokingly. "Sometimes stress can make..." Don't you spoil it," Lauren said. She molded herself to me and kissed me languorously slowly and thoroughly. "I love you too, you know. I vote that we take all the usual speeches about how it's too sudden and a result of the crazy circumstances and just pretend they'll all been said, so we don't waste any time, OK?"I looked down. I've seen this swamp illness many times before. Sometimes it is fatal, but rest, fresh water and the pain-killing effect of the herbs I've given usually fends it off. Some people say it is the fetid air of the waters, others that it is the malevolence of the water spirits who prefer not to be disturbed, but I think it is poison carried in the mosquitoes' bite." Where did you learn your medicinal skills?" wondered Ivory who, despite her reservations about Glade's blasphemy, was nonetheless very.