Jim," and I hugged her even tighter. I would have told her that I loved her too, but I couldn't get my voice at all. I just held on to her, hoping tha... I could have many more moments like this one. I renewed my commitment to do whatever it took to make sure that she was taken care of, one way or another.Love and moments of tenderness are rarely simple and pure. There was a level in this embrace in which I reached out to Cindy purely as a young teen girl who needed support and guidance. I don't. Their defense had been futile and every person had been killed, even the children. Bennie and I talked about the situation and didn't really expect to find anyone until we were in North Carolina, if then. There hadn't been many people there anyway but the Triple-A's cleared them out thoroughly.Game was plentiful but, as we expected, we didn't see signs of people until we were north of Charlotte at Durham.We were coming into the Raleigh-Durham area early one afternoon when we ran into people. We. Icouldn't ignore the fact that the poor guy was now living with anattractive woman. Surely, even though he knew what was in my mind, hecouldn't help but looking. I'm sure I would have.Then there were the thoughts swimming around in my head. These are hardto explain. I knew that there had been many subtle changes in mypersonality - the crying was proof enough of that. But now came moodswings, and strange, alien thoughts...distinctly feminine thoughts. Andperhaps what bothered me the most about. How was work?" Richard said, looking up, with no hint of anything out of the ordinary."Hello, Ma'am," Maria greeted me with a knowing smile that spoke volumes."How long before dinner, Maria?" I asked."I am just about to get it started Ma'am," she replied."Good, I'm going to change out of these clothes then and get into something more comfortable… it's been a hard day," I said."Tough day at work, honey?" Richard asked.I looked at Maria, smiling smugly at me. "Yeah work," I said blankly.I went.