" Do you have both of them?" I asked."Yeh," he said, and pulled the mate from under the counter for me to fondle."How do they shoot now?" I asked."Oh ...hey're fine, they'll never be as good as a Ruger but they're a hell of a lot more gun than they started out life as, still it was a big fucking waste of money. I laughed like hell when the fool lost his ass thinking he was a big time poker player.I didn't even give him enough for 'em to get back the money it cost to convert the things," he said,. Her body bucked wildly and she moaned loudly between screams but I refused to stop. I only stopped when I heard her breath out ‘I… I can’t… take it…’ between moans. Gradually I slowed to a halt. She moved her legs and let me back away. I climbed onto the bed smiling at her as she lay back breathing deeply and smiling at me. I kissed her softly and stood. As her breathing slowed I slid my hands beneath her and lifted her into my arms. She smiled and put her arms around my neck, I kissed her. All of us who were alive attended, of course. Jerry Ford was there, the oldest of us, along with Jimmy Carter, Bush 41 and Bill Clinton. It was pretty much the same bunch that had been present for Bush 43’s state funeral, and if anything, this was even bigger. I made an appropriate speech, as did most of the others. After it was over, however, we went back to the blood sport that was the 2004 election.The Democratic Convention was about a month before ours, at the end of July, in Boston. That. “Told you to stop it, didn’t I?” she asks and sets the half-empty bottle down next to mine with a forceful clunk. “Shit!” I mumble, turning away from her and staring hard at my stalker. So much for new friendship. “Oh, don’t play coy,” he tells me with a lopsided grin. “Your motives are quite…” He pauses, waggling his eyebrows. “...transparent.” It takes me a few moments to understand the bad pun. I slowly and rather unwillingly lower my eyes, and when my gaze encounters my chest, my breath.