I smiled back. God damn, no matter what Theresa wore, she wore it well, and I do mean she wore it very well. “How goes it dear?” We talked, Theres... flirted, and as she did I wondered about her and Vanessa again. I wondered where Vanessa was at and I also wondered about all the “talk” of the townspeople if what was going on between Theresa and Vanessa was true. Did she and Vanessa really get together and do these sexual acts together? Did they really, truly, and honestly lay down with each other. "I'm Beth's and Susie's mother. My name is Carol.What's yours?" "Hi Mom," I said. Mom gave me a closer look. "Johnny, is that you?" I was surprised that her voice didn't sound angry. Maybe she would thinkit was funny too, like Susie. Then Beth spoke up. "I'm really sorry Mom. It's all my fault. Jenny, Imean Johnny wanted to play Barbies with us and we didn't want a boy tomess up the game. It was Barbie's wedding and we had everything all setup and, well, anyway, I thought if I told Jenny, I. .. and often extremely generous tippers ... they were rarely as attractive in real life as they were in print or on the screen. Such was most decidedly not the case with Faith, who was even more radiant in person than she was in her work, even while deliberately downplaying her beauty. It was impossible to avoid staring at her, and so Luke didn’t even try. He did force himself to close his mouth, surreptitiously stroking a finger across his chin to ensure he hadn’t actually drooled on. I needed to take advantage of this and waited patiently until the noisehad died away to nothing and then began moving down through the brushand trees, to lay in hiding, concealed by the undergrowth.My plan was simple, I needed to arm myself, and I needed to get some ofthe meat that had been cooked earlier. Pausing in the fringe beyondwhich the firelight did not penetrate, I looked closely at the forms ofmen in various positions of sleep, trying to note if any were on watchor if they may be.