Instead of.’ Linda’s confusion must have been obvious in her face. ‘You remember the first time you woke up at home, and couldn’t remember wha...t you did the night before?’ Linda nodded. ‘Ronald,’ she had answered the mirror. ‘He was…bad.’ ‘Yeah, he was pretty rough,’ Lisa had told her. ‘You thought you drank too much and blacked out, or that he gave you a roofie or something,’ she continued. ‘I let you believe that, it seemed easier then. But that was me.’ ‘You gave me a roofie?’ she had asked,. ’ ‘Hints?’ Jim asked. ‘Like our first night in the Rustmobile—you were so clumsy—and you didn’t have a condom ready. I was pretty sure then. And as time went on a lot of other things just made me more and more sure it was true.’ Jim shook his head. ‘Why didn’t you say something, Hildy?’ She hadn’t stopped laughing. ‘I know guys want everyone to think they have a lot of experience. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.’ ‘I should have admitted it at the start, I suppose.’ ‘You’re hilarious,’. “She is good at it, but she doesn’t really have a burning desire to do that.”“Well, maybe she can find something that interests her. If she does, the family can help,” I suggested.We kept working on our crops while the family drama played out. I was sure every family had their dramas. Ours just required that I think hard before taking any action. Any drama could effect our real business.The spring hadn’t broke early enough to do the transplant yet. The plants might not recover from the shock. He reached for the stethoscope, snapped the earpieces in his ears, and placed the pickup between the small, tanned, upright cones. He listened for a moment. Minor arrhythmia had already begun. The only good news he could think of was that she'd had a tetanus shot two years earlier. Small comfort, that. He removed the stethoscope from his ears and let it hang by the earpieces around his neck.Mary's quiet sobs stole into his thoughts, making it harder for him to maintain his professional attitude.