I knew myvoice was high now, but I hadn't been expecting to make THAT kind ofsound."It's just a kiss," she insisted, a little more gently."But...he's ... guy. I can't kiss a guy!" You're an actor, Julie, you need to find a way past this." Easy for you to say."Someone started chanting. "Kiss! Kiss!" Quiet, Leroy," Mrs Blake warned. She got up from her seat, walkingtowards the edge of the stage. I clenched my thighs together. I feltcertain she could up my skirt from where she was. "Okay, I. Some said it was shock, and assured me it would fade away.She wasn’t suffering from depression, and not quite catatonia.When I arrived home I could see exactly what they meant.She moved like she was in a trance, quiet and listless. She slept a lot, and talked very little.She peered out the window for hours and listened to people speak, but what she was really seeing and hearing, no one could tell me. She didn’t seem to be in distress, or distraught. There was no weeping or crying, just a. I was doing a few pushups to the side of the road as a warmup for the physical part of this, when I saw her turn in the entrance. I rose to my feet casually and jogged toward her. I allowed several feet of clearance between our trajectories to prevent alarming her too soon. I didn’t want to have to chase her screaming hysterically through the park. As fit as she seemed to be she might even outrun me! I glanced behind me to check for observers, then swerved as we neared each other and shoved. Mrs. Chambers had reserved the three Bighorn rooms next to ours for Molly, Riley, and Emma.The Gilmore Girls should have arrived in Billings by now. We’d turn Venerable over to the sheriff and spend the night in town. Ride the late morning spur back to Cottonwood Bend, then an hour or so back up to Little River.It was still spitting snow, but the visibility was decent from a three-quarter moon. Not much wind, which was a blessing for the first leg of our trip. A few gas lanterns were flickering.