"And remember our agreement, the terms were that you would get the lowest score on the team so you better bowl good this frame."Scott sighed, discoura...ged at first, but then as he approached the line he steeled himself. He was determined, he would not lose this bet. He would not let himself lose. Not if there was anything left in him. He fixed the pins down the lane with a determined glare. They were the enemy, they were what threatened to subject to this, and all he had to do to thwart them was. " There, now," he kept saying.The incident had changed the way my stepdad generally treated Mom. But it did nothing to quiet my anger nor smooth the raw feeling I had of not being part of the household I lived in. I was disgusted with the way he'd ignored her pain for weeks until the result was disaster and heartbreak. I was glad he'd had a comeuppance and that he'd earned it the hard way. And I knew that my mother's rigid religious fervor meant that I would never be able to share with her my. We did this for a reason, Susan, and Ihope, a good reason. Retribution was certainly a part of it,but *only* a part of it. I, for one, held out some hope thatwe might make a reasonably nice human being out of him beforewe were through. What you are talking about now is a nasty,irrational and hate-filled vengeance that I want no part of onmy conscience, and neither do you if you will just think aboutit."Darkness started welling back up to claim Sam again as sheheard Susan ask, "So what do we. " Beablushed violently. Why had she told all those intimate details?"Did you know that he had a girlfriend or that I am a witch?" Pennyinquired further."He told me he is single," Beatrice admitted truthfully. More sheepishlyshe continued. "And witches aren't real, right?" The moment the words hadleft her mouth, she regretted them. The fact that the girlfriend couldforbid her movement or coax embarrassing details out of her spoke of adifferent truth. Now she prayed with all her might that she.