Stef said, ?what happened toMa, Jay?? Esme imagined the fight over a shirt and tie and a properdress. The sort of fight she and Nick had with her mo...her. Sheremembered the first Christmas after everything, when she and her motherhad a terrible row in a store in Birmingham over a ?proper dress.? Shepulled on the hem of her dress as if by rote.?Very funny, Stef,? her mother said. She looked around the table andsaid, ?I would appreciate it if you would come.?Esme blurted out, ?We?d be happy. . balance... of the plane. He'd found it needed just a bit of trim -- not much, really, but a bit.The instructor had noticed the slight adjustments as well. "Have you ever flown before?" Nope," replied Ken. "Did I do something wrong?" Wrong? No. " replied the man. "But why do you keep trimming the plane?" Sorry," said Ken. His concentration was still mostly on the now-empty skies. "It seemed a little out. Should I leave it alone?" It's no problem. If the plane's trimmed out, it's a little. "Yes, I think I'll keep it," she answered."Well, lemme loosen it up in yer skin then. That way ye can remove it if'n ye wish sometime," Celes said and tugged the ring. She rotated it back and forth a few times to ensure it was loose from where it had fused to the skin, and then told Danica to wash.Danica stood up and dressed, Celes telling a story of a man she had encountered on a task while Danica was away. The man was once a powerful wizard, though his mind had slipped away from age of late.. “How are we planning on doing this date, on Friday?”“Oh, huh, I’m going to simply stay and get cleaned up after our game against Glencoe. What about you?”“Oh, I’ll be at your game all right, so I’ll just hang here, too, ‘til the dance starts up. Uh, what about after the dance? You don’t have your license, yet, do you?”“No,” I said somewhat dejectedly like a balloon quickly deflating. “Paul and Cathy McGregory, and I are signed up for Driver’s Ed at Fanshawe College, but those classes don’t.