”Arlene finished Jeff’s breakfast and set it in front of him. After he ate and had a second cup of coffee, he stood and said, “I think I’ll go... check on Ann.”“Oh, no, you don’t. Mom told me to keep you in here. Ann will be embarrassed if you show up. Right now, they will be laughing and joking about it, but you will get Ann upset again if you go in there. Trust me on this,” she finished, shushing him with her fingertips on his mouth before kissing him. “Ann isn’t the only one who loves you.”They. "It's the other way around. All of that bonding comes across as a deep,abiding, unconditional love that we can feel being transferred back tous from our pod mates. You have to really experience it to understand,but it's the greatest feeling you'll ever have," Rose replied.Meanwhile, Sarah approached the prone body of the petite Japanese woman."Manami," Sarah said as she gently shook the younger woman's shoulder.Manami's physical wounds appeared to have healed. Sarah was amazed atthe healing. Even when she came by my house, she'd skipthat during the warm months. Since my mom also skipped that as well,this didn't seem totally out of place and I still got brief glimpsesof mom's bare body when she'd change. But Caroline wasn't as old asmom and she wasn't my * mom *, so there was something interestingabout looking at her. She was more like Sheila, about the same age at15 or so, but I was older now and girls were becoming more interestingfor me.Caroline was a pretty girl, with dark. All sorts of stuff was running through my head. I was getting impatient and paranoid, wondering why the hell the elevator was taking so long and wondering if I’d made a mistake. A big mistake. Finally the doors opened and I was headed up. After two stops to let off people on other floors, the number 8 finally lit up. I exited and speed-walked down the hall. I put my ear up to the door, but everything was silent. My heart was pounding and my palms were sweaty. I slid the key card in and quietly.