Lying there, with a mask of his own girlfriendover his face, he cried out "I WANT TO BE YOU!" and then came in amighty explosion, bucking and writhing... his eyes tightly shut and histhoughts only on one thing.The next three months passed slowly and painfully.They passed slowly because each and every day was a nightmare ofparanoia and indecision for Bryan. He knew that these people - whoeverthey were - had something in mind for him. He just didn't know what. Hedid have something to go on, though. She could almost touch Steve’s disappointment. The changes in his voice tone, the slight pauses in his note reading, gave him away completely. As she worked over the next few minutes to reinstate the revealing image she had just taken away from him, she reflected on his outrageous proposal. Kept women, a sex toy, make dirty movies with me. He’d used all of those phrases, much to her surprise, and at the time ‘disgust’. She’d rejected, out of hand his crude offer, partly in reaction to the. ”“Did you leave home with him?”“Yes, we were never separated all our lives, l was devastated when he died.”“Sorry,” Susan said, seeing the tears in Esme’s face.“Oh that’s alright,” Esme said, reaching for a tissue, “it was the way he died that was tragic and very embarrassing.”“Really?” Susan said.“I was pegging him, really giving it to him the way he liked it, suddenly he clutched his chest and collapsed, l unstrapped and tried to revive him but when the ambulance came l had forgotten to take. ”“Wow, I’m impressed. You never told me that. And how about Jeff?”“Oh, he is one of the permanent Friday nighters. We took what you told us about Mandy, and he runs any NPCs I attach to the group. There are always one or two, and he has a blast with it. His minor is in English Literature, and he really gets into character doing it.”After we left I drove over to the old hardware store. I looked in the window, and it seemed to be around 1,500 square feet. A rather respectable size, and I hoped.