All I know is that Richard treats you as if you're made of glass or something, or some sort of sacred relic. Shit! I just don't get it at all, but he ...eems to think you're the second coming or something! He tried to explain it to me the other night, but I couldn't follow half of what he was talking about."Erin stared at the ceiling for a moment, then sighed and went back to the buttons on Megan's gown. An uncomfortable silence stretched out between them."So, then, who's ready for a nice hot. .. "And Mandy just swept her hand toward him, palm up."I shrugged.She gave me a look. "Geez, Jake. You act like you don't care..."I just shook my head. "Make up your mind, woman! I do care, but it WAS you that said she didn't want the constraints of being married, or the feeling of total commitment..."She started to protest that ... surely with some niggling deviation in the context of 'fem-logic'. I held up my hand to stop her."Look, love-of-my-life! You were right, I was wrong ... sorta .... I wonder if cinnamon would improve theflavor?I finish the repugnant concoction."Can I take water?" I ask my mentor, reaching to wash thetaste from my mouth."Please. Also, you may want to throw up in about half anhour. Don't worry if you do. The potion will already be inyou, working its magic by then." He smiles again, watchingmy eyes.He stands up and stretches. His old body cracks, he flipsoff his sandals and unties the cord holding his ceremonialrobe closed. He drops it to the ground. Skyclad,. I still continued to take my pills now I still didn't know whatthey were, but I took them by myself with no urging from my mother." After the surgery I was finally able to go to school. It was a smallprivate school that you would send your children to to make them perfectprincesses. Model girls ready to be the perfect wives of rich men.Still I was very shy and it took a long time for me to be assertiveenough to even talk to another of the girls. You see I was attracted tothem and I didn't.