I was enjoying the day, when I saw sir in the passage looking at me. I asked him “how do I look?” with my eyes. He messaged me hearts and kisses. ...hen after sometime during lunchtime, I got a message from sir to come to the seventh floor, right now. Now, our college was a new bldg, n work was going on the 6th n 7th floor. We weren’t allowed to go there because there was dirt n cement and workers used to work. The lift also didn’t go there. There were stairs made of cement to go up. I hid behind. He’d kissed her face and down her neck.“Oh,” she’d said, “I can’t resist you when you kiss me there.” Bud hadn’t noticed all that much resistance before. Cindy had been in the kitchen, after all. A scream would have fetched her. He’d turned Blanche around -- ‘Mrs. Pierce’ had disappeared sometime while he was feeling her breast. He’d kissed the same spot from the back while opening her robe. The nightgown had been thin and lacy, providing a great feel of the hard nipple against his palm.Still. That time, his worries had been directed toward Bonita’s expected long road to recovery. Little had he realized that she would die suddenly and — to him, at least — unexpectedly, merely three days later, shortly after being transferred back to her Pine Bluff nursing home residence, just down the street from the apartment of his brother Hosea. Amos had been on the phone with his brother Joel, who lived in California, when the grim call from Hosea — Talitha’s and Kumi’s father — had interrupted. “This whole performing and running thing is stressing you. We’ve been stupid not to notice. How much weight have you lost?”“Weight? Well, I always weigh a little less after a long race. I don’t know that I’ve lost weight overall.”“Except that you run long runs every week. And you are rehearsing non-stop. It isn’t enough that LeBlanc has you rehearsing three hours this evening. I’ll bet you planned to practice more tonight, didn’t you?”“I don’t want to let anyone down,” I said. Didn’t they.