"My mom looked ready to cry again and I'd noticed she liked to bite her fingernails while Dr. Hirsch talked. She'd never done that before. But I'd nev...r been in a coma before either. She stood by the windows with her arms crossed, looking nervous and happy all at once. Dad sat in a chair next to her, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, and neither of them seemed able to look at anything else but me."There's been some minor atrophy of your muscles," the doctor continued. "You've lost. " Keep going." The best eyes...the best face...the best thighs..." He looked up to see if his mother objected to what he was saying and seeing none continued, the best boby "the best breasts...the best arse." He stopped, waiting for his mother to say something, but she didn't. Instead, she rolled off him and lay back down her towel.Sensing he had done wrong, Mark immediately apologized. "I'm sorry. I went too far."Helen was hugging her knees, staring off into the surf. "It's not your fault,". “I’m surprised you recognized me after all this time.” He sneered, and the scars on his cheeks twisted horrifically. “You might be a hot little piece, but your face didn’t change much.”“I wish I could say the same for you.”He snorted. “I think I’m prettier this way, actually.” He looked down at the woman in his lap—the woman I’d been trying to ignore. “What do you think, Dog Meat?”Dog Meat was a high-elf woman, perhaps in her twenties. She was beautiful, blonde, pale and slender, and she had no. Penny's wrists hurt, and the blood caked on her torso itched and flaked as she moved. She somehow felt MORE naked than she was, which was completely, and marveled that her civilized taboo against nakedness was so strong.She found herself looking at the boy's buttocks as he walked ahead of her. His cheeks flexed and moved as he walked and she realized she thought it was ... beautiful. His back was the same way, though less pronounced. He was like a Greek statue in a museum, come to life.He.