Unday, June 19, 2005 (Continued)When Carol and I arrived back in the study, the parents were talking about the mansion-buying AGAIN - was there no end...to it?They stopped, letting me say, "Carol's game has finished. It served its purpose and Carol lost the mood when she and I started talking normally..." Thank you VERY much for it," interrupted Carol. "I had a GREAT time. That was the first time I've been able to do that, and it was even better than I'd imagined. Especially thank you, Mark. You. I rang their bell and smiled when I caught Olivia plucking the skirt of her dress nervously.The door buzzed and I opened it, letting her walk inside first. I never saw her so nervous before. She’d left her long dark hair down and she had gone easy on the makeup. I told her she looked the prettiest I’d ever seen her. She tried to smile.We were quiet on the elevator—she didn’t want to hear any more of my assurances that my parents would love her because she didn’t believe me and she said I was. The old man admitted to himself it wasn't all that much, but it sure as God made little red chilies was better than sitting on that hard assed porch swing all day.His daughter in law's voice sounded off to one side. "Now Papa, you got to stop wandering off like that. Can't you see that we worry when you go where we can't see you. Come on, let's get back on the porch." She was slow and careful as she led him back up onto the front porch. He tried to tell her that there wasn't a god damned thing. They had to come up with a defense against the magic acid that they spit, or all was lost! Dammit, why did things have to keep getting more and more complicated?Sue and Hat spent 2 solid hours brainstorming a spell to block the magic acid while Jack slept. They came up with a shield wall that was transparent, but would stop the liquid shot out by the dogs. The shield needed to be transparent so that Sue could keep an eye on Jack and heal him when he needed the help. The shield would not stop.