If the Good Lord made anything better, he kept it for Himself."Jessica didn't know whether to hit him or not, so she just kissed his cheek instead.A m...oth flew by the lantern, and the bat Fred had heard earlier dived at the insect, the bat's flight coming within inches of Fred's face. The women shrieked, flinched or ducked, but the bat was gone almost before they could react. Everyone started laughing except Fred. Carla, frowning, reached over and touched his hand. "What's wrong, Baby?"Fred. My eyes start to burn with the urge to blink them, but I can’t close them at all. I realize then that I can’t move at all. I can’t stand up, I can’t look around, I can’t move a single muscle. I can’t even twitch. I’m breathing, my heart is beating, but that’s all the motion I seem to be capable of. That’s why the lights are so bright. My pupils aren’t contracting. I start to panic, then, but it’s a weirdly dreamy and distant sort of panic because my body isn’t joining in. My breath doesn’t. "Why do you ask?" Maybe not for you, but for me thirty-four feet is a big boat. I don't know how to drive a boat that big. Grace and I need a boat mentor." Sorry, Charlie," he said, using an expression from the tuna commercial, I assumed. "I've never owned a boat. I'll never own a boat. I can't help you, and your admission that you don't know how to handle your boat just took my anxiety level to a new high."Grace giggled and patted his cheek. "If you fall in the lake, big guy, I'll dive in and. I’d been fulfilling his fantasy, as well as mine. I shouldn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed. I should feel pleased! Pleased, happy and proud! I’d given him exactly what he wanted! I was a good wife!Charlotte’s grin corroborated my own feelings. She looked like the Cheshire cat! The things we’d talked about came to mind, along with the assurances she’d tried to give me. Yes – this was right, and would work for him as well as for me. And now I looked more carefully, I noticed that Charlotte had.