" Toman sighed, "We just don't want you getting hurt."I looked across the table straight at Toman. He was my oldest friend, if only by a few minutes b...fore his sister had come along. And he saw the look written in my face. Toman laid a hand on his twin's arm."Mina ... I think Maxie needs us to cut him some slack."We were thankfully interrupted at that point by a bark, and Nuka's fluffy head pushing under my arm to lick my face."And how are my favourite teenagers today?" Paul's voice wrapped me. Get it? Between Heaven and Hell? Isn’t that the funniest darned thing you ever heard?” the Almighty God himself asked, and started chuckling to himself.“Uh huh. So... I think you mentioned a reward or something?” I said, trying to keep this surreal conversation on track.“Alright alright, always gotta rush to the good stuff. Nobody ever stops to smell the roses.”“The only thing I smell is some serious mildew that I DON’T want to know anything about.”“Okay daddio, fair enough. Well I’ll tell you. No police in the rear view. No ‘Have you seen this girl’ headlines on CNN. Dory told me her group was so removed from the world they could never go to the police. I started to believe her. I also started to worry about what was going to happen to her. Dory was, as they say, a mere slip of thing. A few inches over 5 feet, blonde hair, pointy nose, narrow face, very pretty, no curves I could see and no way of fending for herself except maybe as a reader of epic poetry. Perhaps I could get her a. When Kevin came in with Crystal, the noise level rose several decibels. They were followed by a bunch from the main shop, and a couple from the utility body shop. There was even a couple show up that worked the T-shirt plant. They were regulars every Friday. Pretty soon, some of the school people showed up, along with some of the cart plant people. As usual, in no time at all, the patio went from peaceful to roaring, with well over a hundred people in a matter of minutes.Sue and Mercy were.