Calm yerself, Missus. Thats why Im here. You wasnt supposed to be here until late tonight. Thats what the widow Jenkins told me. Yeah, well my husban... just couldnt wait to get here to this little piece of heaven, so we drove up last night, Chris said. Hooper spat on the ground again. If you woulda got here when you was supposed to, I woulda been done with all that. Dont take no time just to turn on the electric and clean out a chimney, and we was comin over this afternoon to clean. You cant. Times like that, I know well enough to not go right out. He doesn’t need me, not like that, he never has. I watch him from the kitchen window and his sadness travels through the dusk and up to me. It’s cold outside, the ground is frozen beneath his feet and all the trees have dropped their leaves. There is snow in the mountains and winter in the air but he does not shiver. Eventually I will go downstairs, go to the door, let the light from inside the house filter out around my body and I will. Patting her lap next morning. “Set yo’sef here, chi; Dat boy be ready fo’ some pretty thing mo’ his own age, one dese days,”CASSIE AND ME, though not a matingI liked how she touched my breast — nobody watching — first on the outside of my dress, and then within. I was nervous when she lifted my petticoat and reached into my bloomers, but she was gentle.Francine had told me about it, but I hadn’t believed half of what she’d said. After Cassie was finished, however, I did.FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF. Ashley, fantastic, from what I hear. I'll be blunt. I was leery of hiring you after what some of the folks at 'Hose Beast' posted about you and from what one of my directors told me. My son tells me that my fears were unwarranted."The words rankled Ashley. She had heard them before but she had never said anything. Now she would."It's easy to cast blame on other people when you produce or direct," she said. "Your director didn't like me because I refused his overture for an 'after-hours.