Toward the end nobody asked her to sit with the kid," he informed me."I can guess why," I said flashing back to my own childhood. I hadn't ever had th...t kind of thing happen to me, but I had my share of trauma to deal with. "Then she might have seen something or even been part of something." I can't find anyone who will admit being there yet. It looks as though there were from ten to twelve people who attended." He said."Can you tell if they were the same ones each time?" I asked."No idea, but. The burgers were good, but an idiot could tell they weren't made just with ground beef. The lemonade probably had as much urine as water in it, and she could smell herself even before tasting it.Either Adam was an idiot, or he was lying to her. Appetite gone, Lily leaned back in her chair and watched him eat. He couldn't be that uncomprehending, which meant he was lying.She supposed everybody lied at some time or other, but the two of them had never done so, before. And he was so smooth, she. “Walk me through your nightly routine. What do you do when you get ready for bed?”I went through the list: brush my teeth, undress, turn on the fan, turn off the lights—and then, without realizing what I was doing, in the very same tone of voice, I told her that I would often read one of her stories and jerk off. She was behind me, so I didn’t see her reaction. A distant part of me felt embarrassed, but the rest of me didn’t want to resist answering her. Something changed in her voice. “Which. Patrick tried to be as pleasant as possible, althoughhe did find some of the questions to be a littlepersonal.Patrick told Marion that he was 22 years old, hadjust graduated from college, and hoped to get a jobteaching. He had contacted several school districts,but none of them were hiring, and most were reducingtheir teaching staffs.Marion asked Patrick about his family. He said thathe had a 14 year-old brother and a 9 year-old sister.Marion commented that she had an 8 year-old daughterwho had.