Look, I like sex. Most of us do. But life is about more than bumpinguglies. It's about friendship and good times. And I had found that. MaryEllen was ... good soul. I felt terrible I was keeping her from meetingsomeone, but every time I offered, she declined. She told me aboutgrowing up in Ireland. I told her about growing up here. She told meabout a girl who climbed trees. I told her about a boy who took ballet.She told me about her first girlfriend. I told her about being a sissy.We stumbled. "Just testing another of those many advantages."So saying and with no more effort than it would take an ordinary personto do the same to a metal twist-tie, I bent it into a U-shape."Wow!" said Frank."I want to try something else," I said. "Over in the direction where themoon is currently hanging in the sky there's nothing but fields." So?" Watch this."I pulled my arm back and threw the bar with all my might. It shot offinto the sky, outlined against the moon and did not begin to fall untilit. Was Cathy tired of their marriage? Was he no longer giving her the attention he had the first year of their marriage? No, sex was still important to both of them and Cathy seemed to respond to him as strongly as she had before they married. She might not be wildly adventurous, but she enjoyed his body as much as he enjoyed hers. What was wrong?Why was she questioning him about his car? Didn't she see that he had arrived home before her and changed his clothes? He was only away from the house. It bounced twice, spilling its contents across the tiny grains of sand. Glaring at the unbreakable glass, she summoned her tail and lashed out with it, snapping the tip like a whip. This time the glass shattered, sending tiny glowing embers into the sky. Affection was a farce, a mask worn in the name of love, but only as a means to an end.Or was it? There had been a time when she hadn’t thought so, but it had been so long ago that she couldn’t remember how she was supposed to feel. Staring out.