"Why not? It's an excellent book," Megan replied.I smiled, and then said, "So if it is an artifact, what should weexpect?" Depends on how much of Alan...is left after a stunt like he just pulled.If Alan is getting tapped out, the artifact will be on the lookout for anew host. You must guard your mind carefully not to fall victim to ityourself." Understood," I stated, and we drove the rest of way in silence.We got to the house, and of course it was shielded. I considered callingConners, but before. They were up to us by now. I could see the skin of the animal on the plywood platform, held to the dolly with a bungi cord."Hey, Hon," I said to my wife. "Are you going to be OK waiting for this or do you want something to eat in the meantime?" I should be OK. I had a couple of these," she said, holding up a half-eaten energy bar."How about the rest of you? It's probably going to take a few hours to cook this. Do you want something to tide you over till it's ready?"We ended up pulling three of. So I called her on that day and her voice is also so soft and sweet. We talked on phone for 1hr. Then she said she has to sleep. So I wished her good night and I also slept. It was 11pm.At 12:30am she called me. I woke up and took her call. She said she can’t sleep. I asked her the reason. She said don’t know but feeling so lonely. I talked her for about 2 hrs. And then she slept. Next day she called me and talked me for 2-3 hrs. Continuously. And this continued for 2 weeks. One day she said. "She said, "I love it when you do that." and then followed that up with, "Gotta go. Go make yourself a snack or something." And she turned around and flounced off.I mean I was getting serious mixed signals, and I didn't have the faintest idea what they meant.It was another three weeks before the posse came back to our house for another sleepover. I knew our parents were going to be at a movie that night, and I had strong suspicions that Claire would tell me I was going to get to pick another.