“You mean a kid?” Kate said between mouth fulls of food.“Yeah,” Andrea said and laughed.“I'm working on something,” Kate replied mysteriou...ly.“Tell me,” Andrea said anxiously.“Sometimes the agency brings in these high school kids and does some work co op thing,” Kate said.“Yes well?”“Well, last week a kid came in named Hayden Parron, and he's what I'm working on now,” Kate said.“Cool,” Andrea said.Kate smiled and said, “I've played around with something I call a smoke ritual recently.”“Yeah?”“I. I smiled at him, and the music paused while he returned the smile.I turned back to Jay and caressed his face, his neck, his shoulders, his back, and touched him all over for I couldn't get enough of the feel of him, the spicy scent of him, and the warmth of his body against mine. I stroked his hair, reached behind him, and gave his long, pale-blonde braid a playful tug. My hands slid into the hollow of his neck, and along his shoulders to his arms. Lifting first one of his hands, and then the. The machines arm flung up and a majority of themissiles impacted on the metal, the thing jolted as its arm waspunished by the attack a few strays landed with explosions about itslegs and side. It stammered backwards from the unexpected strength ofthe attack when it was rocked again by a singularly powerful swipe atits mid-side, the blade of the traveler's sword bit hard into the metalsplitting it."Damn!!" Doumont cursed as warning lights and blips began to chime, hismachines arm rose up and. We walked out into the parking lot. She talked excitedly about the movie. I nodded my head in agreement.When we got into the car, I noticed that Mabel was actually wearing a ring on her left middle finger. It was a plain band of badly tarnished silver. It was not obvious unless you were looking for it."That's an interesting ring," I said."It was a gift from my dad. I've worn it for as long as can remember."How could a ring continue to fit from childhood into adulthood?'I held out my hand. "Can.