“Exactly. And I have just been to that same circle of hell for the opposite sex, with Sheila and Tracee as my guides.” She nodded toward Ken. She really did like him, and didn’t want to come off as a total psychopath. “I’m sorry I was rude, Ken. I enjoyed visiting with you tonight ... before I got sucked into the vortex of doom. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to check on Mimi, take a shower, and have a nervous collapse.”
Lily stood in the shower, the sound of the running water drowning out her sobs. There were only two things she wanted — Charlotte, and her old life back—and both of them were as impossible to retrieve as the water that went down the drain.
She knew one thing for sure. If she didn’t find some lesbian friends soon, didn’t find a safe place where she could hang out and be herself, she was going to lose her mind. She was not psychologically fit for this kind of intense, twenty-four-hour undercover work.
CHAPTER 12
“No oozing around the site of the injury?” Dr. Jack’s voice asked over the phone.
“No.” Feeling her throat constrict around the mouthful of yogurt she’d been trying to swallow, Lily wondered if there was a more unpleasant word in the English language than oozing.
“Any pus?” Dr. Jack asked, answering Lily’s unspoken question.
“No.” Giving up on eating any yogurt herself, she instead spooned it into Mimi’s gaping mouth.
“Okay, then, why don’t you just bring him into the office in ten days, and we’ll get those stitches out. If he has any problems before then, be sure and call me.”
Lily knew that Dr. Jack was winding down their phone conversation, but she didn’t want to let her go until she had asked her about another matter. “Dr. Jack?”
“Uh-huh.”
“There was something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Uh-huh?” She sounded puzzled.
“I, uh ... I don’t think I mentioned this to you the other day, but I write and illustrate — that is, draw the pictures —” She mentally kicked herself for explaining what illustrate meant. The Dr. in Dr.
Jack’s name meant she probably understood the meaning of three-syllable words. “Children’s books.”
“Is that a fact?” Dr. Jack sounded mildly interested, but still puzzled.
“Yeah. I was thinking about what you said about going on farm calls with your dad when you were a little girl, and I thought that a story about a little girl who did that might make a good picture
“Ha!” Dr. Jack laughed. “I don’t think anybody’s ever thought of me as literary material before.” She was silent for a moment. “Seriously, though, I like the idea. Daddy died last year. A book like that might be a good way to remember him.”
“We could even dedicate it to him if you wanted,” Lily said.
“Hmm.”
Lily waited for her to add something, but she never did. Finally she jumped in. “The thing is, I’m kind of a city girl, and I’d really need to spend some time around farm animals in
