His voice squeaked with anger as he turned to Bobbie and I and said, "They had the effrontery to try to steal a plane, my plane. They'll play bloody h...ll getting away with that." I assume someone tried to steal your jet plane?" Bobbie asked, placing emphasis on the word "your." Perhaps I misspoke," Keith blushed as he answered. "But you have given me the chance of a lifetime and I'll be damned if I permit those two, Katherine with a K and her erstwhile companion Side Kick Henry steal that. My mind had even accepted the fact that my own little shining star, Nikki, was going to graduate this year. That's another 'set me back on my heels' moment with Cindy. She's, yeah, FOURTEEN. And SHE'S graduating from high school with full scholarship to Auburn University.I called Alan myself."Yeah, I remember you," he said. "How have you been? It's been years, Dan."We caught up on our past histories."I suppose you know that you married my wife's long-lost sister." Oh, yeah," he laughed. "I got. I was losing the ability to choose a course of action for myself.In school, I knew where I was supposed to go at any given moment. In myowners home, I had a series of tasks to do and if there were any changes,my control program directed me to the proper place.But here, in a parking lot, all I could do was freeze in place and repeatover and over in my head, "I am an appliance, I am just a householdappliance, I am a broom, I am an ashtray, I am nothing but an object...."and wait to be instructed. I also wanted Stefan to feel jealous about me being with someone else. My husband seemed more concerned with the Home Owner’s Association than he was with me engaging in this training.I wanted to end this awkward conversation because Betty and her girls looked hurt. It wasn’t the fake hurt of someone trying to manipulate you. It felt like I had let them down, and they were shocked.“Well, that is your decision, and you can write a check for 3,500 dollars, and I’ll cash it whenever you say it is.