"He don' like nobody," the girl said, squinting up at me in the bright sunshine."Your paw?" She looked to be sixteen or so, right scrawny but budding ...oward ripeness."Uh uh," She shook her head. "I'm 'prenticed, and my Ma's 'dentured. He's the master, he is." I'm looking for food for the army," I told her. She seemed to be wearing nothing but a homespun shirt-dress, a shapeless thing that hung from her bony shoulders and had big, useless, wooden buttons down the front as its only decoration."He. ” Her body convulsed and a smile erupted across her face. Amy swung her leg over Kelly and stood along side the bed. The smells of sweat and sex were heavy in the room as Kelly rolled off of the bed and Diane lay down beside me. “Having fun?” she asked sarcastically through glazed eyes. She turned before she could see the pleading desperation in my face. With that, she lay back and Amy took position between Diane’s legs. I watched as she reached down and when her hand reappeared it held one of. She was a fighter, determined to beat it and see her children married with families of their own. Do you know how they treat cancer Ike? They poison it with drugs and radiation. Poison the body, hoping that the cancer will die before the rest of the body does."He looked away as tears fell."I loved your mother. But not as much as she loved me. The chemotherapy and radiation destroyed her ability to enjoy sex. Eventually she couldn't even tolerate it. She... she made arrangements. With friend of. "Whoa whoa whoa." I said, "Let's slow down a little there. I don'treally..". Instead of finishing that sentence, I just sort of waved myhands over my crotch and shook my head.She frowned briefly. "Aww, well, I guess that's okay," she said asthough giving me permission to have limits regarding what other peopledid with my body. She looked at me again ready to gear up for anothermake out session when I began to cry partly because I was so confusedabout my feelings for this woman and partly.