He'd grown older, and more powerful. She hadn't realized how young he was, the last time she saw him. He'd been a man, yes, but not fully grown. She'd...been even younger, and hadn't been paying attention, never thinking that he was anything but one of Carolina's friends, a halfway decent navi, and possibly her lover.His features were still the same, but age had put an edge on them, broadened his shoulders, added heft to a frame that hadn't been small to begin with. His green eyes were no longer. It was the rules of engagement I came in with. Which were just a little different from the Deacon's rules.When I got to my feet, I had clearing the house in mind, but first I used the spare tee shirt to make myself a Muslim radical mask, Like the ones I had seen on TV a thousand times. With the mask in place I began to clear the house. The first door I came to after I entered the hallway leading to the rear of the house was a bedroom. When I listened I heard agitated breathing. I knew there was. .. if not removed.When we were in second grade, George's dad deserted him and his mom for one of the girls down at Gordon's Market, where everyone buys groceries. Taking up for Shirley and the community pitched in to help her with George and the girls. George already knew Dad because he hung out with me and Bob and it had taken nothing for him to start treating Dad as his, too. Things didn't change between them when Shirley re-married. George loves his step-father and treats him well. He just. As her pregnancy advanced, the rules changed slightly. She would turn slowly as I stood watching, showing me her growing belly. Sometimes she would run her hand over her budging abdomen, at others, she would just let her arms hand by her sides, motionless.The pregnancy also brought another change: I could touch Mrs. Glist. Everybody felt they could touch her belly, perhaps even feel for a kick, so I felt no inhibition. Strangely, despite the decided erotic charge that hovered over our.