"How do you know I won't do it again, given the chance?"He turned. "I don't. You have to choose to live, Paul. No one can force you to choose life."Hi... eyes grew compassionate. "But as a friend, I sure hope you do."And with that, he was gone.I looked at my wrists. And I closed my eyes.And I made a choice.=-=-= CHAPTER FIVE: CALM SEAS, AUSPICIOUS GALES"Ms. Bard?"Mmmrph."Ms. Bard?"Mmmrp--oh. I opened my eyes to see a nurse standing over me. "I'm sorry to wake you, Ms. Bard, but the doctor wanted. “Actually, it’s not so bad. All she has to do—or rather, all her engineers have to do, is maintain a constant distance—and the rest is automatic. But, as far as having someone watch over her, Siss and Addy are overseeing their bridge. We also have people mentoring their people until they gain the confidence and experience to act on their own.”“But what if they screw up and do something catastrophic?” Betty asked.“Ah, One and I discussed Lezlly’s situation, and we agreed to remove her. I can actually trace an ancestor all the way to Queen Isabella. The money I'm paying is mine, not from any campaign fund, or any other source." Give me a number I can reach you, untraceable preferably, and I'll get back to you in two hours." A step ahead, my friend." The man says and reaches into a briefcase then hands Ryan a disposable cell phone still in the package. Ryan takes and and gives the man a look, then smiles as the fedora wearing man picks up his own still packaged phone. "Let me. Everything and everyone else could wait. ‘Why don’t you sit at the table and I’ll fix you a snack,’ her mother said. ‘Then you can tell me everything that happened at school today.’ The mother started fixing a ½ peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her. The mother and daughter talked about the daughter’s day while fixing the sandwich. Mom heard all about ‘the best friend’ Suzie, the ‘mean boy’ Johnny who teased her all the time. Mom figured it was the first childhood crush. She knew that these.