Left me with that whore who calls herself my mother. I don't blame Dad for leaving, only for leaving me with her. I mean, what kind of parent leaves t...e kid with someone like her?Probably coming home that day and finding her in bed with those two guys from the Sanitation Department, that was what put him over the edge. I mean, it's not just that they were foreigners, it's that they smelled, you know?Yeah, a rose is just a rose and all that crap, but give me a break. Some roses smell pretty. Please help me, Billy? I can't do this!”They were in his bedroom, where he'd brought her after the game, in order to settle up. She walked the whole way from the living room with her heart in her mouth, dreading what was about to happen. She had already been thinking about which stores she would be going to at the Mall with her best friend Margo until that last, game winning touchdown by the Home team and she lost the bet.She had only ever kissed three boys in her life, and two of them were. Of course dad was going to want me to exercise caution. No problem, I planned to."What does Bennie have to say?" I asked."He wants to remind you that they should have the big transmitter in Hood River up and running by the end of the day and to keep your radios tuned to 1230 on the AM dial." Great, it sounds like everything is going according to plan so far. Hopefully the radio broadcasts will get picked up by the remaining folks up and down the valley and across the Palouse. That's the plan. .. Maybe it’s the vital energy?’‘Vital energy? What is it?’‘You do not know what it is?’‘I know what it is, but I don’t know if you’re talking about the same vital energy that I know.’‘It is the fundamental energy of the physical bodies of living beings. Without that energy, no matter how healthy and powerful a person is, they quickly ages gets sick, and dies.’‘Oh, so we’re talking about the same thing. But I did not understand. Why would it be the vital energy’s fault?’‘It’s just a theory..