There were fewenough things that she could control. She pulled on the shirt again andtightened the knot. Now the shirt stopped just beneath her bra.He... skin tingled again. Her heart sped up again. This time though it wasa scratchy defiant feeling. She could live in fear, but that wouldn'tkeep her safe. She decided to face that fear, not by ignoring it, but bydefying it. She turned and picked up the few "accepted" articles ofclothing leaving behind the much bigger pile of "discards."She paid at. We chatted for a while and I was hoping Rose would cut out but she showed no sign of leaving. So I eventually said to Aunt Jean I had to get back to the office and stood up to leave. It had started to rain quite heavily and Aunt Jean asked if I had time to drop Rose off at home. ‘She only lives across the other side of the park Bill, would that be okay’? ‘No problem Aunt Jean, I’d be delighted to help out’. We didn’t have a chance to chat much in the car as the journey only lasted 5 minutes.. After a quick change I scooted down to the kitchen and put together a quick dinner of sautéed veggies, chicken and rice for them. As they were leaving they each gave me a quick peck on the cheek, thanked me for dinner and headed for the door. “Jenna will be giving us a ride to practice. See you around 10. Have fun at the movies” followed with both girls saying “Bye Dad”. With a slam of the door the house was quiet. I cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for my date. Two hours later I now had. It had come out of him like a weapon, though, designed to shock ... to hurt. And he felt awful about it as soon as he blurted it all out.He didn’t know what to do. He wished he’d brought the wand. He could have told her to accept the news as if it wasn’t any big deal. He could have used the wand on her, like Mindy had used it on those school board people.Irritation replaced guilt as he admonished himself for even thinking about using the wand on a family member. He turned to leave.“Wait!”.