’ I said. Chapman reached into the box and I realized he was going to take the frog out, probablyshove it in my face. It was really creepy. ‘Goin...�� down Louisiana, gonna get me a mojo hand…’ he sang, picking up the little desiccated body. ‘Fuck it! Here!’ I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a twenty. It was the only way to get rid of him. ‘Get out of my face, Chapman.’ He took the bill from me as soon as he saw it and pressed the box into my stomach. ‘You’re a hard fucker, Rob.’ he. The invitation came at a time when Elizabeth had just begun to consider dating. She would have refused it had Marie asked her just a month before. The chance to get away from the city and to spend an idyllic month by a New Hampshire lake might provide her just the rest and relaxation she needed before returning to the fray. She was about to accept when Marie told her about Bernard. "I've told Bernard I intended to invite you. He does the laundry and the cooking, so I thought it only fair. He. . literally, not figuratively.Not for the first time since returning to the house that morning, she asked, “Where is he?”“I don’t know,” Charlie answered without having to ask who he was.“Why isn’t Gary here?”“He had to go to the mainland,” Charlie said.“Why?”Charlie shrugged her shoulders to indicate that she didn’t know much beyond a superficial explanation that there was a problem and he needed to go to the mainland. Gary had not been very forthcoming other than to ask her to get the pilot. "I suppose your -- uh -- personal life is just as progressive as your teaching..."This last observation sounded like a question, and Natalie wasn't sure how to answer it. The Camp Director was obviously hinting broadly at her most private sexual habits, but she couldn't believe her ears. This man was supposed to be a friend of her husband's! How could be seriously considering... God! She couldn't even complete the thought.Desperately she glanced around the tiny little office, groping for some.