Then the ground shook. Hard. Debris flew over and around the dumpster. Some hit the dumpster. The blast wind blew it, and me, three feet.Then there wa... a moment of silence.I stuck my head up.There was nobody left standing.There was a big crater where the house was. Bits of the house were flung outward as though from a meteor strike. Those bits seemed to have shredded the houses around the crater.I got up and ran across the street.Anybody still alive out there had bigger problems than me.I. "Well, just ... Why doesn't my body work right? Nobody else has problems like this when they get married." Well..." said Kerri. "Actually, hon, I don't know about that." What do you mean?"Kerri sat down on the sofa next to her. "Well ... Do you remember back when you first heard about the birds and the bees, and what was involved?"Amanda had been ten years old, in a 5th-grade public-school classroom. She had learned via the school district's mandatory sex-ed program. "Yeah." Do you remember how. "It's what I expected my life with Helen to be. But if I couldn't have that, then I want something just as good or better. The only person I can see who would make my life better would be you." Will there be a ring?" she asked tentatively."Of course. But only if you tell me you'll marry me," I smiled, kissing the tip of her nose."Yes, Gerry. Yes ... I'll marry you," she said. And for the first time I could remember, I saw tears."You've never had a ring before, have you?" I said.She shook her. She squeezed them and he groaned aloud at the warmth of the touch. He covered a breast with his hand and moved his fingers gently to find her nipple, stroking it delicately and carefully controlling the passion he felt for her. He reached down her body, still keeping his fingers against her skin, tantalisingly over her stomach. She could wait no longer and grabbed his wrist, forcing his hand lower, down between her thighs, into the aroused wetness there.Her moan of pleasure at his touch,.