With hisdress still hiked up around his body, he ran to the counter where hequickly poured her coffee into her cup. Then he hurried toward herbedroom... holding the cup with one hand while his other hand tried totug down the skirt of his dress. He pushed open her door with hisfoot. He was having a problem getting his skirt down on the side wherehe was holding her coffee cup. He was still having a problemstraightening it as he hurried into her room. She was there, in bed,sitting up, watching. "It was funny. Mary introduced Cindy to Jack and Cindy told him she'd never blown a captain before. Chris spit Coke all over me." What did Jack do?" He told her captains weren't any different from anyone else."She gave me a kiss."Good boy." Have you talked to Mom since you got home?" No." She was wondering if you wanted to do something together for dinner." I'm going to show Wanda how to make spaghetti the right way. We can make enough for everybody just as easy as for the three of us. I may. "May I help you, miss?She looked up, and then continued her pillage of our sweaters."Are you looking for something in particular?" I asked again, not relishing the thought of putting all these back in order.She stopped, her hand grasping another sweater, and poised as though ready to continue at a moment's notice. She looked at me, and then at the sweaters."They're all black," she said flatly."Yes," I answered, picking the closest one up and folding it back, as it should have been.She tossed. This prompted the return of panic, but a sense of inevitability accompanied it.Short, heavy breaths left her nose. The material crammed into her mouth was soaked through and dense, now compressed through so much gnashing of her teeth. She tried to spit it out, working her tongue against the ball of cloth. A frustrated, grating cry climbed to her molars when she couldn’t dislodge it. Her thighs tensed, desperate to close, to protect her most private parts, and through it all, her back still.