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them. The good as well as the bad.”
“Is sex like this for everybody?” If so, what she had missed! What her bastard father had stolen
from her! And people thought she was a thief ?
“It’s like this for us, when we’ve taken steam,” Rose said. “That’s all you need to know.”
She lowered her head and it began again.
11
Not long before midnight, Token Charlie and Baba the Russian were sitting on the lower step of
Token Charlie’s Bounder, sharing a joint and looking up at the moon. From Rose’s EarthCruiser came
more screams.
Charlie and Baba turned to each other and grinned.
“Someone is likin it,” Baba remarked.
“What’s not to like?” Charlie said.
12
Andi woke in the day’s first early light with her head pillowed on Rose’s breasts. She felt entirely
different; she felt no different at all. She lifted her head and saw Rose looking at her with those
remarkable gray eyes.
“You saved me,” Andi said. “You brought me back.”
“I couldn’t have done it alone. You wanted to come.” In more ways than one, honeydoll.
“What we did after . . . we can’t do it again, can we?”
Rose shook her head, smiling. “No. And that’s okay. Some experiences absolutely cannot be topped.
Besides, my man will be back today.”
“What’s his name?”
“He answers to Henry Rothman, but that’s just for the rubes. His True name is Crow Daddy.”
“Do you love him? You do, don’t you?”
Rose smiled, drew Andi closer, kissed her. But she did not answer.
“Rose?”
“Yes?”
“Am I . . . am I still human?”
To this Rose gave the same answer Dick Hallorann had once given young Danny Torrance, and in
the same cold tone of voice: “Do you care?”
Andi decided she didn’t. She decided she was home.