Pop was just trying to look out for me... I guess."I couldn't see her in the darkness, but I could hear the poignant sadness in her voice, even though...night had fallen and it was now pitch-dark."Josh... ," she whispered quietly. "If I tell you something will you promise me you'll never tell anyone—ever?" Come on... , Aunt Jeannie. You know you can trust me..."I said, feeling that special warmth a person feels when someone is about to entrust you with a special secret."Josh... ," she said, with. ”“Oh, sure. I’ll bring it up. You’ll need to plug it in. The battery isn’t great.”That was easily sorted, and I found Sally in the kitchen. She looked at me, wide-eyed. I closed the distance between us, took her face in my hands, and kissed her softly, and as lovingly as I possibly could.She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her cheek against my chest. “You know, Sally, while I love to look at your body and watch you move, it might be a good thing for you to dress and tone down the. I love you, just as I said. It’s not that.”“Please Dad! You’re really scaring me. Tell us!”“Alright. On those days when I wasn’t really at work, I had appointments to keep ... with my doctor.”Mom and I both gasped.“Honey, I feel awful for suspecting an affair. Dear God, what doctor? Why?”“My oncologist. Um, well ... I have cancer.”Mom and I rushed to Daddy’s side, already crying. We put our arms around him.“Oh, God. Sweetheart, what kind of cancer? When do you begin treatment? Will it be chemo?. Her skin had melted down the left side of her face, the skin around the socket pulled and thin. The skin on the right side was perfection, smooth and supple. The burned skin went down her chin and neck and disappeared beneath the collar of her shirt. He kept his perusal dispassionate. It was obvious that she was emotional about her face. He wondered what kind of person she was, if she endlessly gazed at her face or if she totally ignored reflective surfaces of any kind. ‘It’s bad, isn’t it?’.