By the time I was coherent again, we were driving off with sirens wailing. Howard was in the ambulance with a paramedic, and he was holding my hand.�...Really, Howard, I’m fine –” I began.“Johanna, you are a lot of things,” he replied. “But fine is not one of them.”“Jerry is going to be so mad at me,” I mumbled.“Asshole,” Howard muttered.I was awake and alert by the time we got to the emergency room. The paramedics unloaded me, and Howard accompanied me as my gurney was wheeled into triage. One of. Selicia had no intention of placing it there but somewhere else on hertorso was an idea that held out some promise to her. An adversary couldseize her wrist and even her arm if they had the chance to, but seizingone small spot on her torso was much more difficult. Still it didn'tseem wise to her to relocate it in such an easily seen place. Her backmaybe she asked herself? Or maybe someplace else?She was over-thinking it she realized suddenly as she watched the longstem detach and follow where. “I can’t. It hurts,” I pleaded with him. “It’s supposed to hurt,” he said deadpan and continued with the punishment. I could hear people around us and I can tell they were watching. “How was I going to explain this?” I thought. I turned and looked up at him with tears in my eyes. “I’m sorry, Liu, I really am. I learned my lesson,” I cried. “No you haven’t,” he quipped and continued. The burning, pinching and stinging pain on my behind made me wished I had listened to him, but it was too late. But of course she felt obligated to support Brenda in her quest for sexual intercourse. Given the tryst with Bruce and in light of Brenda’s failure with Tom, she considered her dalliance with Spencer a complete waste of her time, with less significance to her life than the time she spent in the toilet relieving her physical needs. As they ordered something light to eat, Bruce could not snap himself out of Connie’s seemingly bewitching spell on him. He continued in his sparse dialogue with her.