"So I repeated what Julia had said to me, "Donna had asked Julia not to let the Williamses buy me a car yet, but Donna wouldn't say why, only not to d... it until after this race."Donna said, "I bet all my money on Mark to win and I got REALLY good odds, so I can give him the money as a present to buy a car with. He's getting his license any day now and I wanted to give him really good present because of how much I love him. I didn't bet for me; I bet for Mark."Wasn't that sweet? And believable. The generators are still in one piece so that we can produce power. We can recover use of some of the electric power system by judicious repairs so that we can deliver power to the people. That will give back heat, light, and communications.“There are roads. We have the railway system. The airports are in one piece. Once we have communications, we can start moving the necessities to where they are needed. That will help restore stability.“We can do that until Jade Force destroys that. I walked across a tiled floor, toward her living room. There I saw her sitting naked on her knees on a perfect circle of dried rice. The right attitude for receiving a superior to show him you love being disciplined and that the pain you are feeling is a very small price for your presence. Exactly as I had told her during our telephone conversation from an hour ago.All this time she has been sitting like that, I could tell from how deep the grains had already been pressed into her skin. Without. " The young girl suddenly looked up with her piercing gray-blue eyes and smiled trustingly. "I find you very intriguing, Alexa - interesting name ... do you know why they called you that?" Ohh! It's because I was, ummm supposed to b-be a boy ... named after my father, doctor sir." Her expression had changed, revealing the long-endured sadness at knowing that she had been a source of disappointment from the moment of her birth. A finger lifting up her chin interrupted her unhappy thoughts."Just.