While he was around she was great but when he had to go out of town I found out she turned into a drunken slob. With dad gone and her useless I had t... look after myself but I did get a lot of freedom that way. Tess told me that as long as I didn’t rat her out to my dad she wouldn’t tell him about any minor trouble I got into.The story really starts when I invited my friend Mike over one afternoon to watch TV and hang out. When we came in I was totally embarrassed to find Tess passed out on. Her need is greater than ever.’ Then, holding him tightly by the arm, she walked him to Jennifer’s old bedroom. He didn’t struggle as she helped him into bed under the bedclothes. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she smoothed his forehead as he collapsed into fitful sleep. Unable to sleep soundly with memories of his wife haunting him, he tossed and turned. He could smell Jennifer, he could feel her softness, he could… Carefully he opened one eye then the other and he groaned his misery, as he. "I suppose you could say that," the "voice" replied."Are you going to hurt us?" I blurted. "Cut us open to see what's inside, or poke us with sharp instruments?" Why on earth would we want to do that?" a second voice asked. "If we cut you, we'd probably damage your circuitry or disrupt your functioning, and that would ruin our observations." I've read all about you guys," I said. "I know what you do."There was a murmur of genuine puzzlement in my head. Then one voice sorted itself out. "You. I went on to explain the distinction between assault and battery and gave them examples; then I went on to tell them that should anyone ask, that they could truthfully say that I didn’t assault anyone in the room—and they should leave out any comment about my takedown of Abover as that was an irrelevant detail.I noticed that Jane was very quiet; she had her hands on her face like she was trying to keep from crying.“Jane, are you ok? Anything wrong?” I asked.She looked up and I could see tears.