“That feels really good.”“We can hug as much as you like, but that’s pretty much the limit.”“Is it OK to kiss you?”“So long as it’s ...a friendly kiss, yes.”She kissed me softly and briefly on the lips.“Best friends, Bethany?”“Best friends, Steve.”I hugged her again and headed home. Jennifer picked me up as planned and I filled her in on what had happened with Bethany. We had dinner with her parents and spent the evening cuddling and talking on the couch in the basement.On Tuesday, I made the trip. Hopkins is considered one of the top three hospitals in the world; it’s like a mecca of medical care and research. That doesn’t make it perfect; far from it, accidents happen all the time even at the best places. I mean a heart surgeon can just as easily lose a patient at Hopkins as anywhere. One misstep by an overtired P.A. when inserting a catheter in an eighty year old man and all the skill and experience in the world probably won’t save him; I mean that’s just one of the tragic facts of. Plans. Schedules. Presentations. Ah ... there it is on the schedule. In six months, you'll get to be an Engineer again, to build something. Project planning will be over. Project Management has it all figured out.Five months pass.What do you mean there's no money left? you think. Where did it all go?You look around. Row after row of offices. Planners. Budget people. Managers. Project Managers. Directors. Where are the Engineers? What happened to our project?Oh, you're told, the customer cut. She pulled off of him and climbed up and nestled into a gentle embrace as they cuddled on the bed breathing heavily. Caleb was dazed and confused. He had folded so quickly. He hadn’t put up any fight. His mom looked into Caleb’s eyes and gave him a kiss. A wave of devotion washed over her. She said, ‘Caleb, I love you in ways a mother shouldn’t.’ And she gave him another soft kiss. ‘I will do anything that you ask.’ She gave him a another soft kiss, equal to the last. ‘I live to serve you.’.