Chapter 36

I hate I told you so with a passion. “You’re going to screw up,” and the resulting broken arm...”I told you so!” Kissing JW when we were 8, the paddling I got, Cyn saying, “I told you so.” Yeah ... well ... she tattled ... mom would have never known.

I don’t know how many more ... well ... I do ... but. So when The Powers that Be showed up after the refit and I was pretty far along ... well ... Seven. Yeah ... her ... that Seven ... the predictor of my condition ... grinned and opened her mouth.

“Shut it! Wretch!” I said. She opened up again. “Don’t say it.”

Seven and her minions disincorporated. Slightly disgusting ... I’m more at ease than I used to be. I only gagged once ... probably because I wasn’t ready. The Powers that Be don’t give a warning ... they’re just ... there.

The refit was slow. It was like the newly found regime was experimenting ... freedom takes a bit of getting used to. And the ‘hard-liners’ didn’t like it much. They kept expecting and were ignored. “No” was a new and unusual word they were used to saying ... most had never heard it. It took a while for the budding recreational folks to get materials and labor tended to walk off when they felt like it. Soon, there would be car payments to make and bills to settle and the walking-off stopped. Capitalism at its finest.