An adult stories – Loneliest Man Who Ever Lived Ch. 04 by GaryLMMartin,GaryLMMartin [Note: This is a romance story with some erotic scenes. It is not a story with erotic scenes in every chapter. Some chapters have incredible sex scenes, but many others have none.]
Chapter 4: Wednesday
“Harry!”
Goldie had a warm smile on her face as she hugged him in the lobby of the Hilton. It was precisely 12 o’clock sharp. She was wearing a gorgeous white fur coat.
“Does this mean I passed the test?” Harry asked.
“The first one,” Goldie grinned.
“There’s more?”
“Um hm,” said Goldie.
“And what if I hadn’t given the right answer?”
“Then we wouldn’t be having this wonderful conversation. And I would be feeling very, very sad,” said Goldie. “Where are we going today, Harry?”
********
“Rockefeller Center? Not sure I’m familiar with it, Harry,” said Goldie, as they sat on the subway train going north.
Harry looked over at her. He couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not. “Do you like to ice skate?” he asked.
“Do I like to ice skate?” Goldie repeated. She broke out into a broad smile.
Rockefeller Center was gorgeous. They had put up the Christmas decorations early this year. There was a giant tree above and behind the rink, studded with hundreds of different ornaments. There were finely crafted ice sculptures lining the walkway to the rink, of penguins and seals and bears and other arctic animals. The sculptures were decorated with colored lights and tiny evergreens.
“This is beautiful, Harry,” said Goldie, and at that moment Harry knew she had never been here before.
Harry was not a particularly good ice skater. But he had come to the rink often enough, to stare at women and imagine himself skating with them. This had always been one of his pet fantasies, to skate with a gorgeous woman while the world watched.
In moments, his fantasy became a reality. Goldie was skating, side by side with him. But she started to stumble. She grabbed Harry’s arm.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Goldie. “Harry can you… show me how to do it?”
“I thought you liked to skate,” said Harry.
“I do, but I never said I was very good at it,” said Goldie. “Show me, Harry. Teach me.” Her eyes implored him. She looked at him with tremendous need. Or was it wanting?
Harry instructed Goldie how to push off with her right foot, at a perpendicular angle. He held her arm while she attempted it, once, twice, thrice. And then she was coasting along with him, beaming at him.
“That’s it. You’re getting the hang of it. You’re a good learner,” said Harry.
“And you’re an excellent teacher,” said Goldie. Suddenly she skated to the center of the rink, which was relatively empty, and she executed a series of sharp circles like an Olympic pro. Harry’s mouth dropped open as he saw her skating in tight concentric circles with one leg in the air, and her arms out. The eyes of everyone was on her.
And yet she was here for one person. She was here for him. It gave Harry a chill down his spine.
Harry watched her as large snowflakes gently hit the ground. In her white fur coat, she looked like an angel, as flakes dotted furs. She was so beautiful, and so talented. And she was interested in him.
Not interested in him.
She wanted something from him.
But she was pretending to be interested in him. Even in pretense, Harry was thrilled beyond belief.
When Goldie was done, and she returned to Harry, the other skaters clapped and applauded.
“How did I do, Harry?” she asked, grabbing his hands and putting her face close to his.
“Incredible,” said Harry, at a loss for words.
“I had a great teacher,” she smiled at him.
“Why did you…”
“I like it when you show me things, Harry,” said Goldie. She stared into his eyes, and all of a sudden all the other skaters around them disappeared. “Doesn’t the star pupil deserve a kiss, Harry?”
Harry looked at her lips. He wanted to. He clearly did. She was talented, gorgeous… even beyond the imagination of anyone he had ever been with on one of his fantasy dates.
But… he couldn’t. Harry remembered the Rule of Onnika. He just couldn’t.
He saw the disappointment in her eyes as he pulled back fractionally. It almost broke his heart.
“Ah well, maybe later then,” said Goldie.
They skated some more. Goldie said, “Do you like the way people stare at us, Harry?”
“They’re staring at you, Goldie,” said Harry.
“Are they? I hadn’t noticed.” She grinned at him. “How does that make you feel, Harry?”
To be with the most sought after woman in the skating rink. Probably the most sought after woman in all of New York.
It made Harry feel powerful. It made him feel desirable.
But it also made him feel insecure.
********
As they skated some more, Harry commented on their fellow skaters. “Look at the people around you. The couples. Can you tell which are the leaders, and which are the followers?”
Goldie looked around. “No, Harry.”
“The ones in front are the leaders,” said Harry. “Look at that tall man there, and that Chinese girl. Notice how she’s working to keep up with him? She loves him more than he loves her. And that Spanish man and his woman? Notice how he’s struggling to keep up with her, while she never looks back? She’s the one in charge of their relationship.”
“And what about us, Harry,” Goldie asked, skating perfectly level with him. “Who is in charge of our relationship?”
Harry paused for a long moment. Then he said, “Our… relationship?”
“What would you call it?” she said, her eyes challenging him as she skated in front of him a bit, but turning to face him insistently.
“I… I don’t know. What would you call it?” Harry asked.
“I call it… wonderful,” Goldie. And the look of pure joy on her face as she did a quick circle in front of him made Harry’s heart leap.
********
On the way back to Battery Park City, Harry grew increasingly uncomfortable as he saw Goldie, sitting next to him quietly, simply looking at him. She was clearly attracted to him. Or she clearly seemed to be. He had to keep reminding himself that she was doing all this for a reason.
And yet… her reactions seemed so genuine. She really seemed to enjoy being with him. After they took off their skates, he was rewarded with a hug. “Thank you, Harry,” she whispered, as her white fur coat pressed against his black winter coat.
“For what?” Harry asked.
“For allowing me to fly again. Even if only for a little while,” said Goldie. She looked up into his eyes, and for some reason seemed to like what she saw.
********
Something made Harry leave the subway system entirely when they went to switch trains at Grand Central Station. Goldie looked at him questioningly. “I want to show you something,” said Harry.
He took her to the Metro North indoor train platforms. There were a dozen of them, some with trains standing by, some without. People were standing on the platforms, or getting in or getting out of trains.
Harry stood there, looking for a long moment.
“Why did you bring me here, Harry?” Goldie asked quietly, grabbing his hand.
“What do you see?” Harry asked.
“I see… trains. Platforms.”
“What do you see?” Harry asked again.
“I see… people. Getting on trains. Getting off trains.” She turned to him. “What do you see, Harry?”
“I see a vast physical network that connects locations,” said Harry. “I see the bloodstream of an enormous organism, connecting vast semi-sentient areas which don’t realize that they are connected to each other. I see individual cells of the organism, who are half blind, only peripherally aware of each other. Each of them is programmed with their own goals, their own hopes, their own destinies. But for a brief time, through random chance, they are all thrown together, in exactly the same place, even though they have such different fates. One man is connected to a family by shared experiences and genetics. One woman is connected to a different family by the very same principles. Each one is programmed to return from whence they came. If you look at them, visually, you will not be able to discern their programming. But inside, locked in their brains, is a pattern of behavior, a set of goals, dictating what they will do, where they will go, and why. And all we see are the bodies, the bodies who, without a clue, go this way, or that.”
For a moment, Harry forgot who he was speaking to. He was so unused to articulating his own thoughts to others. He felt embarrassed, as he shyly looked at Goldie. Would she ridicule him? Would she even understand?
But when he looked at her, he saw she understood. She nodded, slowly, and had a new look on her face. Respect, maybe? “You see so many things, Harry,” she said, as if appraising him for the first time. “You see so many things the rest of us don’t.”
********
They had dinner at The Cove.
“I have fond memories of this place,” said Goldie, as she ate slowly. “This was the first night we were together when you didn’t try to kill yourself. You haven’t tried since the first time we met, have you?”
“N-no,” said Harry. He suspected she kept bringing that up to keep him a little off balance. He also noticed how Goldie referred back to their meetings as fond memories–he had only known her for about three days, if one didn’t count their very brief encounter on the wharf. But she was trying to expand that, to make it seem as if they had had a long term relationship.
“That’s good, Harry,” she said, watching him closely.
“Tell me about the boyfriend,” said Harry.
“The boyfriend?”
“The one you ‘have been seeing’,” said Harry.
Goldie dropped her spoon in her soup. “That’s very good, Harry. Do you have an eidetic memory? Many geniuses do, you know.”
“For some things, yes,” said Harry. “And you haven’t answered my question.”
“What would you like to know, Harry?” Goldie asked. She looked at him, and saw the pain in his eyes even before she had said a word. “Greg is handsome. Greg is tall. Greg has dark hair, like you. But green eyes, not blue like yours. Like ours, Harry.” And she stared into his with her sparkling blue eyes.
“How long have you been seeing Greg?”
Goldie thought a moment. “About… eight months.”
“That’s a long time.”
“Longer than seven months, by far,” said Goldie, picking up her soup spoon again.
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“A few weeks ago,” said Goldie. “Why all the questions about Greg? Do you think he might be more your type than I am, Harry?” She gave him a playful look.
“You claim to have a romantic interest in me.”
“Harry, that sounds so platonic. You sound like a biochemist writing a research paper.”
“You claim to be attracted to me,” said Harry.
“That’s a little better,” said Goldie. “But once again, I don’t claim anything. I am attracted to you.”
“So what about Greg?”
“What about him?”
“Are you still seeing him?”
Goldie looked around the restaurant. “Not lately.”
“Have you broken up with him?”
“Have you broken up with him?” said Goldie, in a mock deep voice. She smiled. “I love the firmness of this cross examination. It’s so manly, Harry. I think you missed your true calling. You should have been a lawyer,” said Goldie. “What if I told you that my lawyer prepared a document for Greg and I to sign, an official agreement for Greg and I to stop seeing each other, a formal, legal break up, notarized by the President and stamped by the Chief Justice. Would that satisfy you, Harry?”
Harry sensed a certain hardness in her voice. “I’m just trying to understand how you can be interested in me if you’re also interested in another man.”
“You’ve never been interested in two women, Harry? Is it not possible to divide your attention? It seems to me you were staring at the well rounded asses of both a blonde and a redhead in front of us on the skating rink. You seemed to carry on a conversation quite well, even when your attention was divided three ways.”
Harry reddened. He had noticed those two women, but he didn’t think Goldie had noticed.
“Everything is not black and white in this world,” said Goldie. “In your brilliant mind, I’m either with Greg and not with you, or with you and not Greg. Why can’t you just relax and see where things take us?”
“I’m not used to operating that way,” said Harry.
“I can see that,” said Goldie. “When was the last time you relaxed?”
Harry didn’t know what to say.
“When was the last time you were able to fall asleep without pills?”
Harry stared at her.
“Don’t act all surprised, Harry, It’s basic research any private detective or AI hacker could have come up with,” said Goldie. “You’re not the only one with your own version of Carl, you know.”
Harry stiffened at the mention of Carl.
Goldie reclined in her chair. “That was such a good meal! I’m full. Care to walk me back to my hotel?”
When they got to the lobby of the Hilton, Goldie turned around and faced Harry. “I had a wonderful time today, Harry.” She reached over and handed him a data chip. “Your next assignment.”
Harry took it and put it in his Pad. It was a page full of equations. “What is this for?”
“Ours is not to ask, Harry,” said Goldie, shrugging.
“I… I can’t do this in a few hours,” said Harry.
“We never thought you could,” said Goldie. “I’m flying back to Boston in the morning.”
“You are?” Harry asked.
“Oh Harry! You should see your face!” Goldie gave him a hug. Then she pulled back. “I’ll see you again.”
“When?” Harry asked.
“When you finish the equation,” said Goldie. “Tell me how long you think you’ll need and I’ll come back then. What will it be, Harry? A few days? A week? A month?”
A month! He couldn’t go that long without seeing Goldie again. Harry looked rapidly at the equation and felt his heart racing. “A few days,” he said quickly.
Goldie looked into his eyes. “I could come back Saturday, Harry. Would that give you enough time?”
Harry wasn’t sure. But he knew he couldn’t bear to wait a month to see her. Even a week seemed like an eternity. “Yes. Yes, I can do it.”
Goldie hugged him by the waist, and looked up at his eyes. There was something surprisingly intimate about the move, even though they both had thick coats on. “Then I’ll see you on Saturday, assuming you solve the problem correctly.” She paused. “I would kiss you goodbye, Harry, but I know you don’t like to kiss girls, so….” she took his hand, and shook it with a mocking expression on her face. Then she winked, to take some of the sting out of it. “See you later, partner.” And she turned and went into the elevator. When she turned around to face him, she saluted, just as the doors closed.
Harry stood there, in the lobby, feeling a conflicting mess of emotions.
*********
“I gave him the second equation, Mr. Slattery,” said Goldie, combing her hair in the mirror. “I have no doubt that he’ll solve it.”
“Excellent. Do you think he’s attracted to you?”
Goldie smiled. “That goes without saying. He told me to come back in three days. He wants me.”
“Very good, Goldie. You’re doing well.”
********
“The first equation seemed vaguely related to aerodynamics. This equation seems to be in the realm of particle theory,” Carl said.
“In other words, something completely different, and something that The Foundation shouldn’t have the slightest interest in.”
“Precisely,” said Carl.
“Another IQ test?” Harry asked.
“Probably,” said Carl.
“This is the weirdest job interview I’ve ever been on,” said Harry. “For a job I’m not applying for, for a job I’m not remotely interested in.”
“But what do you think of the job recruiter?”
Harry sat back in his chair and smiled. “She plays her part well, Carl. She has me convinced that she’s interested in me. Even though I know it’s all play acting, it feels… it feels so real. I’ve never had any experience like this in my life. I cherish every day I have with her.”
“But where is this going to end, Harry?”
“It will end when I pass all their little tests, they give me their job offer, and I turn it down. I’m hoping I can get at least two or three more days with her before all is said and done. The memories will be priceless,” said Harry. He looked up at the picture on the wall of Goldie, smiling at The Cove.
What was it? Was it her smile? Was it the way she looked at him? Was it her tone? There was something about her… something that was so irresistible…..
********
[THE PAST]
By the time Harry got to high school, he saw the humans falling one by one to their new mating programming. After entering puberty, DNA programming caused the males to seek out the females to fertilize their eggs. The females, in turn, sought out the most desirable mates who would impregnate them with best genes.
Harry watched boys he knew from middle school who used to be interested in kickball and girls who used to be interested in jump rope suddenly, like robots, become reprogrammed to be interested in each other. Harry, of course, not being human, was not affected like the others. He could dispassionately observe the effect of the mating urges on the human behavioral system without being affected himself.
Still, when he looked at the females of the species, he couldn’t help but think what a superficial resemblance they bore to his own species, whatever his own species was. Harry had yet to figure that out. He saw Julie Mangrove’s breasts, and wondered what it would be like to touch them. He saw Carla Singleton’s ass in tight pants, and wondered what they looked like without the pants. But to Harry these were purely scientific, scholarly pursuits. He watched girls coo and flirt and rub themselves around boys, like they were cats. He watched boys chase after and pursue girls, like they were dogs.
Harry didn’t involve himself with any of this. Mostly. One time Kara Sedgewick came up to him and told him, “You’re very sexy, Harry.” He looked at her and blinked, and didn’t know what to say. She looked at him for a moment and then walked on. Then there was the time when Susan Cliff wanted to know if Harry thought she was pretty. Harry merely thought the blue eyed beauty was asking for a second opinion, so he told her that she was in the upper quartile. She puzzled over his answer for a moment, before frowning and moving on.
But then there was Onnika Furlow. She was the one who got through to Harry when no one else could. She asked him for help with her math homework.
Harry could hardly refuse. The blonde, green eyed beauty had prematurely large, eggplant shaped breasts, and a very well rounded behind. Something inside of him compelled him to help her, out of the goodness of his heart.
Onnika came to him for homework help more than once. It turns out that she not only needed help in math but English and social studies too. As Harry sat with her in her bedroom, after meeting a smiling Mrs. Furlow who was simply delighted that Onnika had made a new friend, he noticed that Onnika tended to sit unusually close to him when they worked on her homework together. Her thigh sometimes touched his. He wondered why she sat so close to him. Often, when they were walking to her home together, her hand would brush by his hand or his leg. He wondered if she had balance problems.
And then Onnika liked to stare intently at Harry when he was explaining things. He wondered if she understood what he was trying to explain things to her, because her gaze seemed fixed on his face, often unmoving.
And then one day, when he was trying to lecture her about the basic elements of geometry, Onnika said to him, “Harry, do you think I’m pretty?”
Harry remembered when Susan Cliff had asked him this question. He had thought about it for weeks, before concluding that Susan didn’t really want to know if she was pretty or not. She wanted to know if Harry thought she was pretty. It was too late, way too late for Susan, but not for Onnika.
Harry knew the answer to the question. Onnika was undeniably attractive. He had thought about… he had thought about… he couldn’t even admit to himself what he thought about. The thought of him, being involved with a human… it was unthinkable. And yet, Harry had the urges. He couldn’t deny it. He wanted to be the one to fertilize her eggs. He had thought about it, in less academic ways, more than once.
“Yes,” he said.
Onnika looked at him for a long moment. She seemed to be waiting for something. When that something didn’t happen, she reached out, and she kissed him. This was Harry’s first kiss. He felt her lips pressing against his, and he kissed her back, to the best of his ability, pressing his lips eagerly against hers, kissing, touching, sampling.
After a long moment of kissing, Onnika pulled back. She stared at Harry intently. Then she said, “Thanks for helping me with my homework, Harry. You should probably go now.”
And that was the end of it.
Onnika never asked for homework help again.
She avoided him in the hallways and in class.
When he went up to her, and asked her if she needed any more help with her homework, she shook her head.
Harry couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong. Was Onnika dissatisfied with their single kiss? Didn’t she know that a sample size of one was never statistically definitive?
There was something about that, something about that kiss which had ruined things, which had ruined the perfectly good relationship that Harry and Onnika had. At the time, Harry didn’t realize it, but looking back on it, he realized he enjoyed going to Onnika’s house, and sitting in her bedroom and helping her with her homework. There was a certain informal intimacy, of sitting in a girls’ bedroom, alone, with a girl, which unconsciously appealed to him.
And now he had lost it, all because of a kiss. From that came Harry’s second rule, after The Rule of Gary, called the Rule of Onnika: Kisses end relationships.
********
As usual, school bored Harry, and high school was no different. While the boys were daydreaming about the girls, and the girls were daydreaming about the boys, Harry was thinking about weightier things. Hidden underneath his social studies and geometry texts were books on computer programming and biochemistry. Harry petitioned his mother to let him skip a year of high school, but his mother refused, saying that Harry needed to be “socialized” and with people his own age. Harry couldn’t tell his mother that there were no people his own age, since he was not a human being. He stood there, in his silvery space suit, but his mother refused to see it.
The kids stopped beating up and teasing Harry, which was a good thing, but Harry was still a loner. He made a new friend, named Alex Sanduval. Alex was a quiet, thinker type who was also ostracized for being smart, like Harry. Alex was by no means a Fourther, but once one’s IQ rose above 140, it made little difference to the teaming masses which huddled around the 90 to 110 zone.
Alex and Harry spent time together, sitting and talking about philosophy, current events, and theories of a universe designed with a distinct curvature that was heavily weighted towards the bottom. Harry found that Alex had remarkably few insights that Harry didn’t already have on his own, but at least Alex could understand what Harry was talking about and they could have a conversation together.
After a few months of being friendly with each other, all of a sudden Alex turned to Harry and said, “We’re going to be friends forever”, and Harry, remembering the Rule of Gary, realized their friendship was about to come to an end.
He wasn’t wrong. Two months later, Alex discovered Susie MacIntosh, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Susie MacIntosh discovered Alex, and soon the two could be seen kissing in the hallways, making quite a spectacle of themselves. Alex suddenly had no time for Harry, as he was busy trying to ingratiate himself sufficiently with Susie so he could presumably fertilize her eggs. So Harry lost another friend, but at least this time, remembering the Rule of Gary, he wasn’t caught by surprise.
********
Goldie discovered boys.
She had initially discovered them in the seventh grade. She became known as the “kissing bandit” because, in her quest to experience everything life had to offer, she decided she wanted to discover what kissing was like. After she kissed her first boy, Tommy Miranda, she discovered she liked it. But after kissing Tommy a few times, she began to get bored. She started to kiss other boys. More than once she was called to the principal’s office for kissing boys in hallways and being disruptive.
By high school she had discovered other uses for boys. Her mother and father, seeing her growing appetites, had warned her that she was not to have sex before she was at least 21. But Goldie was tired of waiting. She had Thomas MacInerny take her virginity when she was only 18, figuring that 18 was almost 21. He was a senior, on the football team. He took her in the men’s locker room after everyone had left one evening. But as they kissed and undressed, Tom began to hesitate, wondering if they should really do this, and Goldie got the paranoid feeling that maybe Tom was a virgin. She had picked a member of the football team precisely because she expected him not to be a virgin.
“Come on, Tom, just put it in there. Stick it in there, you know you want to,” said Goldie, smiling at him while trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. And so Tom stuck it in there. The first time Tom took her, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. In fact, it was kind of painful. She went through two more boys before her friend Maura Ettinger told her the secret: that sex was like getting a new tire for your bicycle, it took a while to stretch and break in properly.
Maura was right. She went back to Tom, who she had already dumped, and had him make love to her again. By the fourth or fifth time Goldie found she liked it. But then she dumped Tom a second time, because her roving eye found another boy she liked better. She would go to parties and seduce guys she liked. Goldie quickly acquired the nickname “vampire” because it was said that once she bedded a man, she would suck the enjoyment out of him and move on. Goldie was always restless, enjoying whatever man she was with at first, but getting bored quickly, and always looking for the next new thing.
The boys always asked if she was protected, and Goldie would laugh bitterly and assure them that she was. They liked the fact that they could come inside of her without wearing any sort of plastic sheaths. The Grimwave Syndrome had made sure she was protected, from pregnancy at least.
Despite the Syndrome, and her lack of a period, Goldie grew respectably sized B cup breasts, although not quite as big as Claire’s. Goldie was always envious of Claire. Her breasts were bigger, her hair was blonder, and even her smile seemed wider. When Claire started seeing Mark Ferguson, Goldie stole him away from her. For Goldie, it was easy. She simply used the direct approach.
She went over to Mark’s house on a day when Claire wasn’t with him. “Do you think I’m pretty, Mark?” she said, as she closed the door of his bedroom behind her.
“Sure, Goldie,” said Mark.
“Then why don’t you go out with me?” Goldie asked.
“I’m with Claire,” said Mark.
“That’s easy enough to fix,” said Goldie. And she wiggled her hips as she walked to Mark and kissed him.
“Goldie… Goldie,” Mark gasped, as he pulled back. “I don’t know-”
“Perhaps this will help you figure things out,” said Goldie. She pulled her sweat-top over her head. She wasn’t wearing a bra.
She cupped her breasts. “What do you think? They may not be as big as Claire’s, but they’re firmer, and I know how to use them better.” She smiled up at Mark.
Mark’s jaw dropped. And when Goldie went and kissed him again, he didn’t resist. Within moments she was guiding him to the bed, and working on his clothes.
Her sister Claire found out eventually, of course, and was furious.
“You whore!” she yelled.
“I’m no whore,” said Goldie calmly. “I’m simply more of a woman than you are.”
“I’ll kill you!” Claire yelled.
“I’ll whip your ass,” said Goldie contemptuously.
They took their argument outside. Their home abutted a forest. Whenever Claire and Goldie wanted to fight, they said they were going to “take it to the forest”. It became their ritual. They went into the forest again this time, but more angry with each other than they had ever been before. When they came out, Claire had bruises on her arms and chest and a bloody nose; and Goldie had not one but two black eyes.
This was too much for her parents. They sat Goldie down and had a talk with her. “Goldie, why are you doing this?” her father asked.
“Claire is the brilliant one. Claire is the beautiful one. She gets all the attention, all the praise. For once I wanted what she had,” said Goldie.
“But Goldie, there are so many men out there,” said her father.
“That’s part of the problem,” said her mother. “You have been with so many boys. I did not raise my daughter to be a whore.”
“No one ever paid me, Mother,” Goldie grinned.
That started another series of arguments, until their father quieted them down. He looked into her eyes. “Goldie… my dear, sweet Goldie… why do you feel the need to be with so many men?”
Goldie seemed to sober up under his gaze. “I… I don’t know, Father. I am interested in them for a while, and then they bore me.”
“Goldie, you have a restless nature. I recognize it. I think you got it from me,” said her father, sighing.
“Well… how did you deal with it? How did you settle down with Mom?” Goldie asked, casting a glance at her mother.
“After a while I realized that what I was looking for was not someone who was going to excite me every minute of every day, but someone nice and loving I could share things with.”
Goldie looked again at her mother, who nodded.