‘In fact, I’ve never been taken to dinner before.’ ‘Never?’ I said, surprised. She shook her head. ‘Never.’ ‘Why not?’ I said. Blunt... and I regretted it immediately and opened my mouth to apologise. ‘Look at me,’ she said, stopping dead in her tracks. I loosed her arm and did as she requested. She still looked like the cliché librarian, still flushed, with a sad look of lost hope in her eyes. ‘I’m looking,’ I said. ‘What do you see? An old maid? You must do.’ There was a terrible sadness in her. They only visit when the kids have a sitter. You will be that sitter if you live next door to Jean."Grace will NOT babysit ... unless she is paid seven dollars an hour. And it doesn't interfere with her plans."The house next door to Jean and Al ... and their numerous offspring was built last year to replace the house that burned while the fire department was at the fire downtown." After all these years, somebody bought the lot?" Mother was fairly amazed.The fire I speak of burned everything. A small T.V. was set up on a stand I had picked up at a yard sale and on the east wall, my computer set up. When I moved in, the living room floor was old, very ugly linoleum, and very cold in the winter. In exchange for part of my rent for a couple of months, the landlord let me get some carpeting that my uncle helped me install.We had removed the oil heater, adding a rubber mat under it before reinstalling. I had located a carpet remnant that was a mottled mixture of beige, white, charcoal,. From what I could see in the app, they had ones that went in the bed, in electric blankets, car seat covers, and that was just the shortlist before Tess wanted to know what I was doing with her phone.“Well, I guess you will have to come here and find out, but you have to close your eyes and not open them until I say,” I told her.I found pulling her exercise panty-boxers down worked the best to get the two inductive chargers against her legs and the vibrating strip in place. Once I had her.