‘I get you’re angry and I understand why, but forgive him already,’ Abby said softly. Before another word could be spoken, Abby’s phone rang, ...reaking the silence. ‘What’s wrong?’ Ayla asked, seeing the stricken look on her sister’s face. ‘Dad’s been admitted to the hospital,’ Abby answered. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ‘Aya, how is he?’ Shane asked when he finally got to the emergency room. ‘They are stabilizing dad now, but they won’t let us in to see him,’ Ayla whispered. ‘He’s going to be fine baby,’. “Wow. Where did that come from?”“I had lunch with Gail last Monday. Of course, the conversation turned to sex and we both feel the same.”“And that feeling, is?”“Vanilla sex. Don’t get me wrong, we love it, but sometimes we need something more. You know that I’m a pain slut. Well, sometimes I want to be that slut without planning it.“Ok. When you two get together, there’s always trouble.”“Ha, no, not always. Well, just forget I said anything.”“No, tell me more. What’s your fantasy?”“Well, I. It all went in. Oh, and also her little wooden box that held her writing paper and a pen and some papers. All her worldly possessions inside one little frayed bag, her whole life.She looked around the room, at her bed. She traced her hands along the faces of the angels carved into the headboard her father so lovingly carved for her when she was a baby. She would miss her bed but the images were etched in her mind forever and she would carry it in her heart for the rest of her life.She cleaned. ’ A little knot tightened in his chest when Eldrian said this. He pushed it away. ‘I don’t have parents. Nobody here does.’ ‘But everyone used to. What name did yours give you?’ The girl turned silent and motionless. Without eyes, and in the dark, it became near impossible to figure our what she might be thinking, if she was thinking at all. Watching those streaks of charcoal skin, cold and emotionless, revealed nothing but emptiness. What hid behind them, Eldrian had to wonder, and he grew.