Thinking about what Rob hadsaid to me, about what I was doing to myself, and about how Penny mustfeel about it. It changed things, somehow, that she'... changed the wayshe looked so as to be more attractive to me. I tried to remember howshe'd looked before, but I couldn't. As far as I knew, she'd alwayslooked the same. But I realized that she'd seemed to be more confident,more assertive, since we found the Monkey's Paw in the woods. It madesense that maybe that had happened because she felt. Still I continued to receive their letters so I must have had some effect on them. They continually accuse me of spoiling them on other men. I’m sure there have been others though. I certainly haven’t been totally alone. That winter Cindy and I began a romance that died by summer. Then in fall flared up for a couple of months. I just can’t share a girl with other men. I answered the mail I got from Olive and Candy, and occasionally wrote to them when I was upset or lonely. They have been. She never did, unless it was for a particular class she was taking. She hadn’t participated in it yet because they required the students to be fourteen and older to do so, and she had just turned fourteen a few months ago.Now however boys were more interesting. Each time she saw a naked boy in the halls, she felt a tingling sensation in her belly. She even began to noticed the difference between boys and girls when she babysat them. Though most of them were too young to truly interest her. The. ‘The police and NBI do nothing unless they’re paid,’ said Daddy, ‘If you’re the victim of crime, they won’t do anything but take your complaint, unless you pay. If you pay, they swing into action. Ten years ago, a few thousand pesos would guarantee inactivity. Now, my fucking government is paying them to take action against my business.’ ‘Yes, it’s ironic that the United States turned Angeles into a brothel for its servicemen, in the tradition of your famous general Hooker, and ran it as such.