"How many other lies have you told me, I wonder." "I'm sorry." "You're sorry for what?" "For whatever is making you angry." "Sorry just won't cut it. ...What punishment do you think you deserve for first, the stalking, and then the lying. Lying is a very serious offense." "I don't know. Please don't make me decide." "So, you'll let me decide then?" "Yes, but don't be too hard on me. I can't help wanting you, wanting to be near you." "You are very impulsive, Linda. I'll add that to the list. . Your book may be quite old. You see, in former times theyused to use the skin of executed criminals to cover books."I felt sick. I stared at the book trying to hold down my beer. Umbertogrinned at me. "What? You are so fastidious? It's only a piece of hide,Guiseppe. Maybe it was put together by some charlatan as a supposedspell book to guile the unwary, those with illnesses, or deformities orsuch, and have them part with some money." He shook his head. "But whythere would be so-called spells. She looked stunning!I was very high, and I stopped to talk to her as I went in, she seemed different, her eyes were as glassy as mine. She was running her foot up and down the locker behind her as we chatted. There was no mistaking how hard her nipples were, I couldn’t stop looking at them as they poked through the thin material of her dress. I was wearing a muscle shirt, and my skin was very tan from my job at the cemetery . The short time we chatted, she kept looking at my bare arms and. She isn’t good about following that rule, but she sure is insistent on enforcing it.” She had asked, way back, and Valerie had chosen that name. Or had she given her a choice that didn’t include ‘Sparky’?“Well,” she asked. “Do you think that your daddy’s rule is a good one?”“Yes.”“Will you follow it yourself?”“Yes,” said Valerie-Sparky.“I’m going to marry your daddy. Do you remember that?” Sparky nodded. “When I do, not now but when I do, will you call me what I want to be called?”“You don’t.