“Anna, are you sleeping?” Mary’s curious whisper full of sweetness.“She’s not sleeping,” John insists, and she can practically hear his ey...s roll in his head.“How do you know? She looks rather peaceful.” She feels Mary’s small hand pet tenderly over her hair and Anna’s heart melts.“That’s just it, dummy. If she were sleeping, she’d be snoring.”Anna nearly laughs, but instead lets out a drawn out snort, shooting up fast as she grabs for both screeching children. She finds purchase in the fabric. Instead they had a reliance on the delusion of their ambitions.These were ambitions that made a woman cold and a man look elsewhere. These were drives and wants that made a woman look for something better than what a lowly but loving man could offer her. Perhaps he was dreaming, because within the world he dreamt about—with soft hands touching and probing the parts of his face that hurt terribly—love was the only element necessary that bound a man to a woman. All of the other accoutrements that. "Is this okay?" she asked, twirling 360 degrees which flared out the skirt."Fine. Let's go."Matilda followed Leon to his car. They drove in silence -- for a one block."What am I supposed to do?" Matilda asked."Whatever they tell you."They? she wondered staring at Leon's profile. "How many?"He glanced at her and then his eyes returned to the road. "Two." Who are they?" Not important." What are they going to ask me to do?" Does it matter?"Matilda thought about that for a while and then said, "Are. It was her turn to smile at me as if she knew more than me. There was a look of youthful superiority that I often saw in younger coworkers. The guys think they can out lift me in the warehouse or outwork me on the sales floor. I had proven my abilities to them at work and now it was my ego that determined I would prove to Kim what I had just said was true.I saw a gravel road up ahead and turned on the turn signal, slowed, and made a hard right turn onto the gravel. I could see a look of shock.