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 Love Is Blind

   A Story of Young Love By Gil Gamesh   Chapter Two

   Friday Dr.  Wilson gave us our weekend reading assignment at the
beginning of class: Darkness at Noon.  I'd already read it but that was in
high school.  I was hoping that it might be something I really enjoyed,
maybe something more modern.  I'd read all five books in one series and I
liked the story, especially the sex and intrigue and carnage and incest and
dragons.  I knew that was too much for a college English class.

   I wore loafers, polished for the first time in a year or so, and some
khaki long pants to meet Alex's family.  Mom had bought me some pants which
were almost impossible to wrinkle and I really liked them.  Gianna came in
my room when I was about to get dressed and was standing there in the
little blue briefs she had bought me.  I watched her eyes as she checked me
out and then she watched as I put on the pants.  I sucked in my stomach and
tightened my abs and pecs so she would have something else to look at. 
Then she said I was nerdish or maybe geekish and, finally, sexy, sexy as
hell.

   Alex and I walked to the library again, with her right hand on my left
arm and her white cane in her left hand.  Again the sea of people parted
for us and most smiled at us.  At the outdoor table, I checked my backpack
for the cold stuff I had brought.  It was still cold.  Last night I had
made something that I wanted to share with Alex.  I had almost finished my
sandwich when I felt my stomach flip flop.  I groaned.

   "What's the matter, Mikey?" Alex asked.  I knew she had talked to
Gianna. She was the only one who called me that.

   "I don't know." I answered.  "I guess my stomach's not my friend today."

   "Mom says there's a stomach bug or something going around on campus,"
she said.  "She says they've had a lot of cases at the student health
center.  I hope you don't get it."

   Damn.  I hoped so too.  That would really mess things up.  Maybe I felt
a little feverish and confused too.  I breathed deeply for a while and my
stomach quieted down and I felt better.

   I opened the cold container and asked her to hold out her hand.  I put
something long and round and cold in it.

   "What is it, Mikey?" she asked.

   "Cannoli," I said.  "I made them last night.  It's wrapped in wax
paper."

   She smiled.  "I love cannoli.  Did you really make it?"

   "Yeah.  Making good cannoli is a challenge.  I like challenges."

   We were quiet while we ate our cannoli.  I thought I might tell Gianna I
got a hard-on watching Alex eat my cannoli.  I didn't really but, as I
watched Alex open her mouth wide to get a bite, I felt something trying to
stretch the little blue briefs I was wearing.  Bent down over my testicles
my penis couldn't raise its head but my briefs were tighter.  After we
finished eating, I asked her again.

   "What kind of girl are you, Alex?"

   "I'm a good girl, Mikey," she said and paused.

   "Well?"

   "I was waiting for you to run," she said and smiled at me.

   "Come on, be serious."

   "You already know I'm a virgin, Mikey.  You know I masturbate; well, I
call it pushing my button or rubbin' my nubbin.  I've had dates with guys,
some good, some not so good.  Most guys don't know what to do with me when
I tell them something."

   "What?"

   "I think I'm a normal woman, Mikey.  I want to have sex.  Maybe I should
say I need sex but I need to be loved too.  All I've got to do is to find
the right man to help me.  I haven't found him yet."

   "Yet?"

   "It's too early for that, Mikey."

   "What do you tell them?"

   "I tell them I'm not going to have sex with them just to satisfy my
curiosity.  I tell them my standards are a lot higher than that.  I've got
to believe a man really loves me before I'll spread my legs for him."

   "I'm like that too, Alex.  I think sex is too important to do hook-ups.
Lots of guys and girls do it so casually and can't even remember the other
person's name.  I don't want that.  I want somebody to love first and then
have sex second."

   "Are we old fashioned, Mikey?"

   "Maybe but I don't care.  My parents have always been open and honest
with me and Gianna.  We talk about everything.  They know we're both still
virgins and they encourage us to hold to our standards no matter what
others do."

   "They sound like my parents.  My mom and I talk about everything too. 
Dad talks to Azee lots.  He has a little trouble talking to me.  There are
a couple of other things you should know about me."

   "Tell me."

   "Mikey, my family is sort of nudist at home.  In warm weather, we run
around in the house naked sometimes."

   "Do you run around outside the house?  What do the neighbors think?"

   "No, but we do go naked in our back yard sometimes, mostly at night.  We
have a pool and it's enclosed for privacy.  I like to swim naked.  I don't
mind if my family sees me.  I've even seen Azee."

   I had to think about that for a minute.

   "Do you mean you've seen them with your hands?"

   "Yes.  Does that shock you?  I wanted to see them.  One afternoon when
Mom and Dad weren't home and we were swimming I asked them to let me see
them.  I even jacked them off, both of them."

   I laughed out loud.

   "What's so funny?"

   "Alex, Gianna has seen me too.  She jacked me off too.  Just once.  I
wanted to do her but she chickened out.  She's curious about guys too."

   "Well, is your family, you know, nudists?"

   "We're not really nudists.  In the house, we don't worry if we see each
other naked.  I've seen Mom and Dad and Gianna naked all my life.  I slept
in the bed with Gianna until she was six and I was nine.  We both liked to
sleep in the nude and cuddle up.  Then we bought a bigger house and I moved
into my own room.  Maybe I should say I was moved."

   "Were you already a horny little devil, Mikey?"

   "No, we played with each other a little, out of curiosity, I suppose. 
What's the other thing you wanted to tell me?"

   "When I decide to have sex with a man, Mom and Dad want me to do it in
my own bed.  They trust me to find a man who loves me and they don't want
us sneaking around doing it.  They want me to be safe.  They've worried
about me all my life, I suppose.  They say it's my home as well as theirs.
When I want to have sex, they will respect my decision.  You're the first
man I'd told that to."

   "I'm going to enjoy meeting your family, Alex," I said, and I really
meant it.  "They're a lot like mine.  I think you'll like my family too."

   "Are we getting serious, Mikey?"

   "No, Alex, we're just taking the first tentative steps on a path and we
don't know where it will lead.  Maybe it will lead to something good. 
Maybe we'll end up just friends.  Maybe we'll end up lovers.  Maybe we'll
get married.  Who knows?  Let's don't rush it.  Just take it one step at a
time."

   "Like going down the yellow brick road, huh?"

   "I suppose.  Listen, I've got to go to class.  The three o'clock jitney
leaves from the front of the library; doesn't it?  I'll meet you there."

   I stood up and my stomach kept going up.  I breathed deeply a few times
and it settled back down.  Damn.  What's wrong?  Have I got that bug?

   During my class, I had difficulty following the lecture.  It was a math
class and I was good at that but I got lost a couple of times.  At least my
stomach didn't do any more flip flops.

   Alex was waiting in front of the library.  She took my arm and we got on
the old jitney.  It was a diesel, crowded, noisy, and not even
air-conditioned.  When we stopped in traffic, the diesel fumes came in
through the open windows and I felt sick from smelling them.  I was afraid
we'd have to stand.  A girl I didn't know saw Alex's cane, nudged the guy
sitting with her, and they gave us their seats.  Maybe Gianna was right
about people.

   We were walking through the parking lot toward my mother's car when my
stomach started again, just one little feeling like I had to burp or
something, and then it was quiet again.  I helped Alex in the car and asked
for directions.  Their home wasn't far from the student parking lot, just a
mile or two North and then a little East.  I felt OK, maybe a little bit
apprehensive, but I wanted to meet her family.

   I parked on the street, helped Alex out, and we started up the walkway
to their front porch.  That's when a big wave of nausea hit me and I knew I
was in real trouble.  I tried breathing deeply again but that didn't help.
My stomach did a big flip flop, then another, and I knew everything was
coming up.

   I dropped Alex's brief case, pulled away from her, and started toward
some bushes.  I only got a few feet away when the cramping hit me again and
I started puking.  I bent over with my hands on my knees and puked my guts
up.  Then it stopped and I was about to straighten up when the earthquake
hit and I dropped down on my hands and knees and vomited and retched and
threw up and puked and barfed and tried to upchuck my socks, all right on
some petunias.  I started slobbering at the mouth and nothing but mucus
came up.

   I heard Alex yell and I looked up briefly.  She was on the front porch
and the front door was open and she was yelling for help.  A nice looking
woman, an older version of Alex, and two young guys ran out.  All I could
think was this was a hell of a way to meet her family.

   Then the dry heaves hit again and my stomach tied itself in a knot and I
hung my head and tried to throw up some more but nothing came out but mucus
and slobber and I tried to spit it out.  When it finally stopped, I looked
up again.  The woman and one of the guys were bent over beside me but now
they had on white face masks.  I looked at the front door where Alex had
been standing.  She was still there, her back against the wall, and one of
the guys was handing her a white mask.  He had on a mask too.  A crazy
thought hit me: why were they going to do surgery on me?

   My heart was pounding away at about two hundred miles an hour and my
mouth was hanging open and I was panting for breath and I felt dizzy and
confused and I wanted to run away somewhere or maybe crawl in a hole and
pull it in on top of me.

   The two guys helped me toward the front door and then stopped.  The
woman told me to lift my feet and she took off my loafers and socks and I
wondered why.  Then she undid my belt, unzipped my fly, and pulled my pants
down and I stepped out of them.  The two guys kept me balanced and she
pulled my knit shirt over my head and I was naked except for the little
blue briefs Gianna had bought me.  I really wondered why she was stripping
me.  I hoped she wouldn't take off my briefs.  I wished I'd worn boxers.

   The two guys helped me in the house and then held me up while the woman
put a blanket over a recliner.  They backed me up and eased me down into
the chair and I didn't care what anybody did to me, only do something.

   Then Alex was there, looking like an angel even with a white mask
covering her face except for her beautiful blue eyes.  She put one hand on
my forehead and the other hand high up in my armpit.  I was cold but I was
sweaty and I wondered why she did that.  She said something was very high,
at least one hundred two.

   The woman, Alex's mother, stuck something in my ear, it beeped, and she
looked at it.  "One hundred and four!  That's dangerous!  We've got to cool
him down."

   The aftershock heaves hit again and I leaned forward and tried to puke
again.  Somebody held a yellow plastic pan in front of me but I couldn't do
anything except slobber and spit in it.

   I leaned back and opened my eyes again.  Alex's mother had two pills
between her thumb and finger and I knew they were for me so I took them and
threw them in my mouth.  Somebody held a can with a straw in front of me
and I sucked on the straw.  It was cold and like lemonade and wonderful and
I wanted more and they wouldn't let me have any more.  I closed my eyes and
tried to sink into the chair.

   Somebody started wiping my face with a cold cloth and I liked that.  I
opened my eyes and it was Alex, wiping my face with a washcloth.  I smiled
at her and closed my eyes again.  Somebody else started wiping my chest
with a really cold cloth and I opened my eyes and it was her mother.

   She had a bottle of alcohol in one hand and a cloth the other.  I closed
my eyes and let her wipe my chest and stomach and legs and I hoped she
didn't pull my briefs down and wipe my dick and balls but I knew I didn't
care if she did.  The stuff she was wiping me off with felt so damn cold
and good.

   Then I watched as Alex held her cloth up for her mother to put alcohol
on it.  She wiped my hand clean, wiped my arm up to my shoulder, across my
throat and chest, and down the other arm to my hand.

   I tried to smile up at her and I knew I was stupid because she couldn't
see me.  I caught her hand and brought it up to my lips so she could see me
smiling at her.  She smiled back, felt down my arm, took my hand in hers,
and held it and I knew I was going to be OK.  I took a few deep breaths and
relaxed.

   The woman, I knew she was Alex's mother even with a surgical mask on her
face, came back with a bottle of something and a spoon.  I knew she wanted
me to swallow something so I opened my mouth.  She gave me one spoonful, I
swallowed, and she offered another.  I took it, then another and another.

   I lay back in the recliner with my eyes shut and the woman wiped me off
again.  Alex didn't let go of my hand and I hung onto hers.  I smiled at
her and, brought her hand to my lips so she could see me smiling.

   Alex's mother wiped my legs, almost up to my briefs, and then wiped my
chest and stomach again.  It was so damn cold but felt so damn good.  Then
she stuck something in my ear again, it beeped, and she looked at it.  "One
hundred and two.  It's coming down."

   I heard Azee whisper, "Man, he's hard!" and then the other Azee said
"Yeah, man, really hard!" and then the woman said "Azee!' sort of like she
wanted them to shut up and I wondered what they were talking about.  I
opened my eyes and looked down.  It wasn't hard.  It was just tucked down
over my testicles as usual and it was behaving for a change.  I realized
maybe they were talking about my stomach muscles, what Gianna called my
six-pack.

   Everything quieted down after that.  My heart slowed down.  My breathing
slowed.  Even my stomach felt better but it was sore, bad sore.  Somebody
kept wiping me off with alcohol every few minutes.

   The next thing I knew I heard voices from the front door and it was my
mother and Gianna.  They came in the room and then just stood there smiling
down at me.  Alex was still holding my hand.  I smiled back and shut my
eyes again.  Everybody went away even Alex.

   After a while, Mom said my name and I opened my eyes.  She was standing
there with Alex's mother, no mask now.  Alex had her hand on Gianna's arm.
The two guys were standing to one side.  Damn, they were identical, two
peas in a pod, even dressed alike.  Their masks were gone too.

   "Michael, Alex's mother wants you and Gianna to stay with them this
weekend," Mom said.  "Alex told her I was chairing a session at the
conference in Atlanta and she insists I go.  Is that OK with you?"

   I nodded.  I didn't want her to go but I knew she and Dad wanted to go.

   Alex came over to my side, walking with no help, and sat down in the
chair beside the recliner.  She put one hand on my forehead and the other
deep in my armpit.  I knew what she was doing and her hands felt wonderful.

   "It's better now," she said.  "Still a little high but much better.  I
think he's out of danger."

   Alex's mother stuck the thermometer in my ear again, it beeped, and she
looked at it.  "One hundred and one.  You're right, Alex."

   I took a deep breath or two, let them out, and relaxed.  I didn't care
if I was in somebody's recliner, almost naked.  I knew everything was going
to be alright.

   Everybody left me and I heard them talking in the other room.  Then
somebody touched my shoulder and I opened my eyes.  It was Azee, both of
them.  I knew my hair had been pushed off my forehead and the whole stain
was showing but I didn't care.  They were smiling at me.  One of them had
something black in his hands.  It looked like the kind of exercise shorts I
wear sometimes.

   "You threw up on your clothes, Mikey," Azee said.  "Mom's got them in
the washing machine.  She wants us to get your underwear too.  Can we help
you put on some exercise shorts?"

   I took a few deep breaths to try to get some strength and lifted my butt
off the chair.  I tried to pull my briefs down but I couldn't make my hands
do it.  One of the Azees did it.  He caught my briefs on each side and
pulled them down and off.  I didn't want them to see me naked.

   "Wow!" one of them said.

   "Yeah, wow, damn, man!" the other said.

   Damn man?  Did he mean me?  Why?  They pulled the exercise shorts up my
legs, I lifted my butt, and they pulled them up around my waist.  I
breathed deeply a time or two, shut my eyes, and tried to sink into the
chair again.  I was just so damn weak and everything was confused and going
around and around.

   Mom came back and she talked to me and I understood she wanted me to
stay with Alex's family and she wanted me to be good, whatever that means.
She took my hand in hers, held it for a few seconds, leaned over, kissed me
on my forehead, squeezed my hand and then she and Gianna disappeared.

   Then Alex and her mother came back and Alex held my hand and checked my
temperature again.  Her mother wiped me off again, up my legs, my stomach,
my chest, my arms.  She even nudged me under my chin and I lifted my head
so she could wipe off my throat.  Damn, it felt good, so cold but so good.
I shivered a little and then relaxed.  I tried to smile at her mother and
then I turned and looked at Alex.  She looked like an angel and I thought
maybe this was heaven and I liked it.

   Alex told me she had called my mother.  My father wasn't home but she
and Gianna had immediately driven to Alex's house.  Alex told her mother
about Mom's conference and asked her to let me stay for the weekend.  She
said Gianna had to stay too since I was supposed to watch out for her for
the weekend.  Azee asked Gianna to stay too and she agreed.  I wasn't
surprised.  Gianna was a sucker for cute young guys.  Then I felt bad
because I didn't mean sucker in that sense.  Mom had said she'd drop off a
bag for us on their way to the airport.  It was settled.

   After a while, Alex's father came home.  He had on his Army uniform and
he really looked good, maybe a little rumpled and sweaty.  He took my other
hand in his and held it, not shaking it, just holding.  Alex was still
holding the other one.

   "Welcome to our home, Michael," he said.  "We've been looking forward to
meeting you."

   "Yeah, but not like this," I whispered.

   "Hush, Mikey," Alex said.  "Stuff happens.  You know that.  Nobody's
blaming you."

   "She's right, Michael," her father said.  "Margaret has talked to your
mother and your sister about you.  Your mother says you're an exceptionally
fine young man.  Your sister has you on a pedestal.  You're welcome in our
home.  You're welcome to come back again anytime."

   He squeezed my hand and smiled at me.  I smiled back.

   "Well, I'm going to get out of these clothes," he said.

   I suppose Alex knew what he meant.

   "Dad, put on some shorts.  I don't think Michael and Gianna are ready
for the way we are around the house sometimes.  Maybe we could all go
swimming tonight."

   Did she mean naked?  I didn't know whether I was ready for that or not.
I didn't know whether I was even up to swimming.  What about Gianna?  What
would she say?

   I had to pee but I was so damned weak and I was afraid to get out of the
chair.

   "Alex, I've got to pee," I whispered.  "Could you get Azee to help me?
I'm so weak and I don't know where the bathroom is but I've got to go."

   "Do you think you can walk?" she whispered back.  "The bathroom is just
around the corner and down the hall a little.  I can take you."

   "But you can't...I mean, how can you take me?"

   "Mikey, this is my home.  I know where everything is, every piece of
furniture.  I never have to use my cane as long as I'm in the house.  If
you can walk, I can take you."

   She took me.  My hand was on her arm this time and she took me without
bumping into anything.  She opened the bathroom door and then stopped.

   "Do you want me to hold it for you?" she whispered.

   I looked at her and she had a big grin on her face.

   "No, I know where it is," I said.  "I can do it."

   I did it.  I didn't do it standing up.  I pulled the exercise shorts
down and sat on the commode.  When I finished, I stood up and pulled my
shorts up and then the room started going around and I was too damn weak to
do anything else so I held on to the sink counter.

   "Alex!" I called her name and nothing else.

   She opened the door and just stood there.

   "I need help.  Call Azee."

   Her brothers came running and helped me back to the lounge chair.  I
shut my eyes again and breathed deeply and waited for the world to stop
spinning.  Finally it did.

   Alex and I didn't prepare dinner.  Azee helped me to the kitchen and I
sat at the table while Alex's mother, Margaret, made a big stack of
sandwiches.  She gave me another dose of the pink stuff, just two spoons
full this time, and then made me some cream of wheat with just a little
salt and then scrambled me a couple of eggs.  Azee popped the top on a can
and sat it in front of me, something lemon-lime.  I was hungry and I wanted
to eat but and I wanted to be polite and wait for everybody else.  I heard
somebody behind me.

   I turned and Alex's father was standing there looking at me.  He had on
black exercise shorts too.  He looked lean and hard even if he did have a
little gray hair on his chest.  Alex was standing beside him.  She had on
some different shorts and a knit shirt and I could tell she didn't have on
a bra.  She looked good too.

   After we ate, I watched Alex help clean the kitchen and stuff the
dishwasher.  From the way she worked, it was hard to tell she was blind. 
She whispered something to her mom and her mom whispered something to her
and then she went toward the hallway where Azee had disappeared.

   I looked across the table and out the sliding glass doors.  There was a
big screened patio or porch out there with lots of outdoor couches and
chairs and stuff.  Beyond the screen, I could see their pool.  There was a
high wooden fence all around it and I didn't see how anybody could peek in.

   Azee walked around me, both of them, and went out the double doors. 
They had put on black exercise shorts like the ones I had on and they were
bare chested and bare footed too.  They started moving the patio furniture
around, maybe clearing a space in the middle.  They both went somewhere,
came back lugging what looked like foam rubber slabs , and started putting
the foam rubber things down side by side.

   "What are they doing?" I asked.

   "Preparing a place for all five of you kids to sleep tonight," her
father said.  "Alex says the cool night air will be good for you.  She's
the one who wants to do it.  Margaret has a sister and a brother who live
about three hours away.  When they come, we usually put their five kids and
our three on foam rubber slabs."

   Maybe I wanted to sleep with her.  He was grinning at me.  So was she.
Maybe he thought it was funny that Alex wanted to sleep with me.

   "It might get hot," I said, leering at him.  "Can we all sleep in the
nude?"

   He just shook his head, grinned, and went over to the refrigerator and
got a bottle of beer.  I wanted one but my stomach didn't.  Alex walked
back to the kitchen table, sat down beside me, and slapped me on my thigh.

   "Bad," she said, out loud.  Maybe I was bad but I felt better.

   "I feel better, Alex," I said.  "Maybe I can walk now.  Would you go for
a walk with me, maybe show me the layout of your house?"

   She stood up and held out her arm for me.  I stood, hooked my hand under
her arm, and we went for a walk in the house.  She showed me the big room
where the recliner was, their living room.  They had a big TV with a
four-speaker sound system just like ours.  We went to one side and she
showed me Azees bedroom and it was a mess and smelled like boys.  Then she
showed me the bathroom between Azee's and her bedroom.  It had two sinks,
one commode and a big, really big, shower and it was clean and smelled
nice.

   Then she showed me her bedroom.  Her bedroom was bigger than Azees.  She
had a queen-size bed, a stuffed chair with a hassock, a love seat, a desk
with a computer on it, a straight chair, and it didn't look crowded.  It
was spotless and everything was neatly arranged.

   "If you're ever in my bedroom, Mikey, don't move anything.  I know where
everything is and this is where I read and study and listen to music.  I
have a computer that talks to me through a blue-tooth ear piece and it
reads books to me.  I can even make it read over the speakers."

   "Where are they?  The speakers, I mean."

   "They're built into the walls.  Dad and Azee did it for me.  I just use
them mostly for listening to music.  I really love good music.  If I'm
listening to books, I just use the ear piece.  My computer's set up to
multi-task and sometimes I listen to a book with my earpiece and listen to
music over the speakers."

   "You mean like text books?"

   "Yes, I can do braille but I don't like to.  It's too slow.  All my
college books are available as MP3 files.  I like to listen to books about
lots of things.  I have hundreds of books.  It's a good way to go places
and see things."

   "You said if I'm ever in your room, don't move anything.  Is it OK if I
move my butt?"

   I pushed my hips back and forth.  She felt my movement and knew what I
was mimicking and understood.

   "Mikey, you're bad.  You must be feeling better."

   I really wanted to do something so I asked.

   "Alex, I'm feeling dizzy again," I lied.  "Would you let me hold on to
you?"

   "Yes, Mikey."

   I pulled her against me, wrapped my arms around her, and held her as
close to my body as I could.  She didn't protest so I put one hand in her
hair and tucked her head against the side of my throat.  I breathed deeply
a couple of times and surrendered to holding her.

   "Mikey, do you really feel dizzy?"

   I had to tell the truth.  "No."

   "Well, I do, just a little.  Maybe you'd better hold me a little
longer."

   I held her and I think our breathing synchronized and maybe our hearts
did too.  Then I heard somebody coming down the hall and started to move
away from her.  She wouldn't let me.  She moved against me again so I
wrapped my arms around her again.

   It was her mother.  She was carrying a load of towels somewhere.  She
glanced at us and smiled.  I smiled back.

   "I knew it was Mom, Mikey," she said.  "I can usually recognize my
family by the way they walk.  She was putting away laundry; wasn't she?"

   "Yeah."

   She took me back to the living room and through it to the other side of
the house.  She showed me her parent's bedroom with its king-size bed and
big TV and then their big bathroom.  It had two sinks, a commode, something
that I think was called a bidet, and a big Jacuzzi.

   "Azee and I get in the Jacuzzi together sometimes, Mikey," she said. 
"Would you and Gianna like to get in it with us?"

   That was something I hadn't expected, not yet anyway.

   "No, but I'd like to get in you, I mean, with you."

   "Mikey!  Quit being bad!  You're just like Azee."

   "Damn, I hope so."

   I heard the doorbell ring and she led me back into the living room and
it was Mom and Dad and Gianna.  Dad had two overnight bags in his hands. 
Mom and Dad stayed just long enough for him to be introduced to Alex's
family and get a report on me and then they had to leave to make their
flight.  I was glad they left.  I was afraid my legs weren't going to hold
me up any longer.

   "Alex, I think my legs are turning to rubber again," I said.  "Let's go
back in the kitchen so I can sit down."

   In the kitchen, I looked out the sliding glass door and saw Gianna and
Azee sitting in chairs and talking.  They were grinning and trying to
impress each other like sixteen-year olds.  As beautiful as she was, I knew
she could impress them.

   Alex and I sat in the kitchen with her Mom and Dad and talked for a
while.  I told them all about my family and they told me more about theirs.
Our families were different but on the important things it seemed that they
were just alike.

   The next time I turned and looked outside, it was already dark and I
could just make out Gianna and Azee on the porch.  If the light in the
kitchen had not been on, I probably could not have seen them.  I could
barely see the pool in their back yard.

   "Michael, I'd like to give you some more pills and some more bismuth,"
Alex's mother said.  "Is that OK?"

   "You're the nurse."

   "I think your upset has already run its course but the medications will
help with your stomach.  Do you think you could eat a little more?"

   "Yeah, I'm still weak but I feel lots better.  I could eat something."

   She gave me a couple of pills and a little water and then a couple of
spoonsful of pink stuff and a little more water.  Alex went to the stove
and I watched her as she scrambled me a couple of eggs, made me two pieces
of toast, spread a little butter on the toast, and brought it all to me. 
Then she poured me a glass of milk.  I saw her thumb inside the glass
judging how much she poured.  I thought her thumb would just make the milk
better.  She put her thumb in her mouth afterwards.  I wanted her to put it
in my mouth.

   "Can I have some jelly?" I asked.  She grinned at me.

   While I was eating, Azee and Gianna carried blankets and pillows out of
somewhere through the kitchen and out the sliding glass door to the porch.

   After I ate, Alex and I and her mother and father sat at the kitchen
table and talked for a while longer.  Alex carried my empty dish and glass
to the dishwasher and put them in it, just like she could see.  Then she
came back to the table and sat down beside me.  She reached for my hand and
held it.  I moved our hands down under the table on my knee.  That wasn't
where she wanted them.  She moved our hands back to the top of the table
where her parents could see them.  They just kept talking.

   I had to go pee again and I knew where it was so I went by myself.  When
I came out, Margaret, Mrs.  Andreas, I wasn't sure which to call her, was
taking a stack of something white out of a closet in the hallway near their
kids' rooms.  We walked back to the kitchen together and she put the stack
on the table.

   "Nightshirts," she said.  "They're just big oversized t-shirts that all
the kids sleep in when they're here.  They usually have shorts or underwear
underneath but their shoulders will get cold without something up top."

   She searched through the stack and found one.

   "Here.  This one is an XLT.  You wouldn't wear that size everyday but
the big ones are nice to sleep in.  Put it on.

   I let go of Alex's hand, stood up, and put it on.  It was much too big
and came down to just below my hips.  I'd never slept in a nightshirt
before.  I said something I shouldn't have.

   "Damn, Alex, I wish you could see...I mean, how ridiculous I look in
this thing."

   "You forget, Mikey, I can see."

   She stood up and ran her hands over my shoulders, down my back, down
each side to my butt, patted one cheek, down my front, and I was afraid
she'd go too far in front but she didn't.

   Gianna and Azee came in and stood looking at me.  Mrs.  Andreas looked
through the big stack of shirts and handed one to Alex, another to Gianna,
and then two to Azee.  Alex and Gianna left the kitchen to put theirs on
but Azee just stood there and put theirs on.  In a few minutes, Alex and
Gianna came back.  All I could see was the white shirts.  I couldn't tell
if they had anything on underneath.  I could tell they didn't have anything
else on up top.  They were holding hands and grinning.

   "Is it OK if we play in the pool a few minutes, Mom?" one of the Azees
asked.

   "Of course.  Do you mind if we join you?" she answered.  "I think we'd
all better cover our butts with something though."

   TO BE CONTINUED: