”“You’re a pushy little bastard, aren’t you? Okay, what do I believe in? My biggest position is going to be the need to balance the budget. Fi...cal policy in this country is a disaster. If we can’t draw a distinction between me and Stewart on that, we all need to rethink this!”“There’s more to it than that. What about on social issues? Where do you stand on gun control? Abortion? Are you pro-life? Defense? What about the Republican platform?” asked Rich.“If we make this about social issues, we. Every male be he giant or human turns to mush in its presence our aura. And magic just comes to us. Its not something we seize and control, Gabby. Its something we learn to let go. Let go, Gabrielle thought with frustration. She hated that phrase. Her sister was more the let go sort of person. Letting go to Gabrielle meant being the subject of her fathers glare, or being gazed at by lecherous slack-jawed men. I will not let go, she thought sadly. I cannot. *** Bill saw Harry just look at the. Just don’t blame me if they bust their gut laughing. Growing up isn’t what it used to be, is it?MEMORIES :My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother’s house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to ‘sprinkle’ clothes. And flower girl will be Miss Juanita Villanueva." She was in Grade Two at Barracuda Beach Elementary. When she'd arrived in town, shortly before Willow Lane Elementary burned to the ground, she had been nervous and terminally shy. Her mother had moved to Manatee Bay for both cheaper housing and a job, after the untimely passing of Mr. Villenueva. The result of loss of father and friends had ripped any semblance of a support structure from under the poor girl, and the destruction of her new.