As we sat talking he was telling me about his wife's injury. She'd been in a wheelchair for nearly 20 years so romance was totally out of the question...for him. As we sat the noise from a disco opposite seemed to be getting louder.I said to Simon "It's fucking noisy round here" and he said "I know of a quieted place we can go" so I said "Show me". We went down the road a few yards then took a turning into a side road, which was darkish and had trees, round the corner and there was a bench behind. .."He could see the doghouse coming. "Wait, Baby. Now you know damn well that's not what I meant..." It sure sounded like that's what you said," she continued, pulling her hand back from his. "You just mentioned that those women were our responsibility, and I personally like Charlotte even in the short time I've known her. I'm certain she wouldn't have been promoted to operator, or whatever her title is, on that big machine unless she had something on the ball. She's obviously intelligent. Ada. Dave got out of his sleeping bag, stood up and walked towards Brandon."Why the fuck are you sleeping naked at a friends house, Dave?" Brandon asked, with his hand on the door handle"fuck you, you're naked too, dickhead!" Dave shot back laughing, "what are we doing anyway?" he asked, as they left my room.This time I waited 30 seconds, if that, to leave my room and follow my friends. The door was open a little wider this time, and from the same position I could see mum stood admiring the two. I didn’t want to be dead because I wasn’t convinced there was an afterlife. But even if I were returned to the land of the living, that was also unlikely to result in a good outcome: Mr Calhoun had driven his truck into a barn instead of rushing Jo to the hospital, and I couldn’t think of a way that ended well for her. And I had disobeyed my mum, so she would be angry with me.I missed my family and friends, but I valued the security and protection of wherever I was.Time passed, although I had.