Reba changed from her bathing suit to shorts and a blouse and packed her bags to leave.When Reba came out of the bed room Mom would have liked to have...continued the talk about child abuse. When she saw that Reba was leaving she kept her mouth shut.Reba got in her car and drove back to Birmingham.When Reba arrived at that crummy apartment Howard had lived in when they had gotten married there really was not a lot to pack.She carried her clothes out to the car on hangers.She dumped her things. Don't swallow it all. Show us the insides of your mouths. Up on yourhands and knees and crawl over here, lips wide apart."The pansy husbands did as they were told, faces red and tongues white.Their noses were running and their lower eyelids were pink from crying.They looked pathetic."So," Cammy inquired, "do you want to do that every time we all gettogether for one of these parties? Or would you rather not?"Still on all fours, they all said, in their muted sissy voices, thatthey didn't want. His face seemed softer, his skin fairer, and most importantly,a pink leather collar around his neck. he reached around to try andremove it and just as he expected, a small padlock locked it securely tohis neck. He thought how difficult it was going to be to get to homedepot to buy something to cut this collar off when he heard the voiceagain. this time instead of it being a soft imagined thought, it wasclear and resounding. Tim turned startled to see her standing in thebedroom with him. . I’ll meet you in the café.’ ‘Great,’ he replied. That was the beginning, and less than a year later they were married. Nina maintained her receptionist job and Tony continued to rise at the brokerage firm. When Nina became pregnant with their first child, Benjamin, she took a leave of absence, stating her intention to return to the law firm at some time in the future. She was just about to return when she discovered she was pregnant with their second child, Nadia. At that point, she admitted.