Phew! Nine pages, guys. Nine. Spoiled brats, all of you. laughs
Hopefully you guys will really like this chapter- it explains a lot of background, and well.. you'll see. And it's all slowly building up, so pay attention!
Please read and review, as always. Reviews make me write faster, and those of you who review every chapter earn brownie points!
Andrea
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Chapter 9: Late-night cartoons and stories of the past
Dawn woke up early Tuesday morning, well before her alarm clock was due to go off. She lay in bed for a minute or two and wondered why she was awake. She had no clue, but felt restless. Pulling her bathrobe on over her nightgown, she picked up the two red books off her dresser, and walked out into the still dark hallway.
The house was completely quiet as she walked down the hallway to the small bedroom she had renovated the year before into a small studio. She flicked on the light and sat down in the oversized, worn-leather armchair in the corner that had been around as long as she could remember. Sitting down Indian-style in the chair, she settled down and began to read Heather's book.
The girl, with the help of the dwarf she'd befriended, had narrowly escaped another encounter with the Goblin King; this time they'd been chased down by a twirling wall of knives and daggers- "the Cleaners." After getting lost in the twists and turns, and speaking with a wise man, they were currently wandering the maze again. They'd just heard great roaring growls coming from a bend in the path ahead of them…
Dawn closed the book and placed it on the small table next to the chair. Looking across the room, she spied her small easel against the wall, covered in a transparent plastic sheet. Uncrossing her legs, she stood up, and padded over to it. With a flick of her wrist, she pulled the sheet off of the easel, and stared at the blank canvas waiting underneath for a few moments.
Making up her mind, Dawn dug through her box of paintbrushes and found a smallish sized one. Unscrewing the tops of a few tubes of oil paints, she picked up her palette and squeezed out small piles of paint onto the pale wood. After pushing the paint around for a few minutes, she tilted her head, brought up an arm, and carefully placed an uneven line of paint down the canvas.
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A loud, harsh ringing sometime later pulled Dawn's attention away from her work. Pausing, arm still held up in the air, she heard Heather stirring in her bedroom, shut off her alarm clock, and trudged downstairs. Figuring she'd better follow and make sure Heather got ready for school on time, Dawn cleaned her paintbrush and carefully laid it down next to her palette. Gathering up her bathrobe, she sauntered downstairs.
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The rest of the week passed fairly uneventfully for the trio. Dawn saw Heather off to school each morning while across the street Rob left for work, and they both returned at different times later in the evening. Dawn read, painted, and looked after Sam during the day, and Rob was always invited over for dinner each night. And as promised, after he returned from work he helped with whatever needed repainted, repaired, replaced around the house.
They worked on the house every evening and by Friday night the entire front of the house had been repainted, as well as the two sides. They were getting ready to paint the back of the house and the shed the next day.
Dawn again found herself waking up very early that Saturday morning. She lay in bed for a moment, taking in her surroundings. No noises to disturb her, no light even shone in the window yet to wake her, she was just awake. Groaning, she sat up, flung off the covers, and felt around with her toes until she found her fuzzy pink bunny slippers. Grabbing her bathrobe, she stepped out into the hallway.
Heather's bedroom door was still closed as Dawn tiptoed past, so she figured she must still be sleeping. As she quietly crept downstairs, Dawn had a sudden thought: she could make a big breakfast, and invite Rob over. It was Saturday, so he didn't have to go to work, and he'd be over soon enough anyways to help finish painting... Yes.. and Heather would love that.
Dawn paused midway on the stairs as she realized she would like that too. Smiling, she continued downstairs.
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Nine of the twelve eggs were left in the little cardboard carton, one package of bacon slices, a loaf of bread for French toast, a small bottle of maple syrup, one box of pancake mix, flour, sugar, various spices, the plastic pitcher of orange juice in the fridge..
Dressed in her nightgown, bathrobe loosely tied at the waist, Dawn took stock of all things on hand, then began quietly rummaging through the kitchen for the various pots, pans, and other utensils she'd need. Dawn wanted Heather to sleep in as long as possible so she could get as much finished as she could before that boundless source of energy erupted from her bedroom. When everything was nearly finished, she'd wake her daughter up, and call Rob to come over.
Grabbing a large bowl, Dawn set it on the counter and quickly rifled through her recipe box: cinnamon rolls. Usually she never made them because they took so long to prepare. But today.. She deftly measured out and combined all the ingredients, then kneaded the dough until it was the right consistency. Dumping the dough ball into a bowl, she covered it with a clean towel and set it on top of the stove to rise.
Washing her hands and drying them on a new towel, she bent over to pull a pan out from one of the lower cabinets. Suddenly, she heard the back door slam shut, and dropping the pan with a loud clang, whirled around, startled.
"Rob!" She stared at him, surprised.
"Dawn?" Frozen like a deer caught in the headlights, he still had one hand on the doorknob. He unconsciously looked down at her before pulling himself together and averting his eyes. Quickly following his gaze, Dawn realized her bathrobe had come open at some point during her work in the kitchen, and though she had a nightgown on under the robe, she was still revealing quite a bit of skin. Blushing, she quickly pulled it shut and tied the waist, securely this time, in a knot.
"What are you.." she started asking, then flinched with a quick glance upstairs as she realized they were both being very loud. She crossed the room to him. "What are you doing here?" she hissed.
Rob took in the scene behind her. "What you are already doing. I was going to surprise you both and make breakfast again." Dawn couldn't suppress her grimace, and Rob laughed. "Was it that bad?"
Dawn shook her head no, then yes. "You've got the basics down.." she tried to console him.
"And now I just need to learn how to cook?" Rob finished, a twinkle in his eye. Dawn gave him a silly grin. He waved a hand in the general direction of the kitchen. "Care to show me how?"
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A few hours later, the cinnamon rolls were baking in the oven, a plate of hot bacon was cooling on the table, and another plate next to that was piled high with warm pancakes and French toast.
"…And you have to crack the eggs carefully," Dawn showed Rob how; first rapping it gently on the counter, then carefully splitting the shell and emptying the contents into a bowl, "or you end up getting eggshells when you take a bite." Rob nodded as he watched. She helped him crack and empty the remaining eggs until she was sure he could do it on his own. "Now," she said, putting a small skillet on the stovetop and handing him a wooden spoon, "you have to heat the pan," and she showed him how to turn it on to medium heat. "Go ahead and dump the eggs in, and keep stirring.."
She rummaged around in the spice cabinet and found two small bottles. "Salt and pepper." she held them both up. "Not red pepper." He nodded, smiling.
"Ooh, keep stirring the eggs or they'll burn." She quickly put her hand over his and showed him how to stir- not too fast, not too slow, but scraping the pans' surface the entire time. Neither seemed to be in any great hurry to remove their hand from the other's, so they kept stirring, together. The eggs quickly finished cooking, and Dawn emptied the pan out onto a plate, which she set on the counter.
"There." Smiling, she looked back up at Rob and was suddenly aware how close they were. Rob looked down at her upturned face and smiled back at her, gently touching her cheek with the back of his curled fingers.
That long, dark brown hair, those beautiful almond-shaped brown eyes..
For a moment, his face had relaxed and Dawn could feel the sense of loss, and longing, behind his eyes. He looked vulnerable, and utterly alone.
"You look just like your mother.." he started, wistfully, then suddenly froze, his hand stiff against her cheek.
"What?" Dawn pulled back slightly, alarmed.
Rob quickly, perhaps too quickly, brought his hand down away from her face and turned. "You look like your mother," he stated again. "The pictures.. In the living room." He pointed in that general direction.
"Oh." Dawn belatedly remembered him looking at them the week before, while they'd been upstairs getting dressed. "Right." She grimaced, feeling rather the idiot. She looked back up at him and gave a weak smile. "I've been told that often, actually.. Thank you."
He nodded, then cocked his head and listened. "I think someone is awake."
"Really? I don't hear.." Distant footfalls, growing steadily louder, met her ears. "Ah." She turned and picked up the plate of eggs off the counter. "Good. Because breakfast is ready!"
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The three of them ate the wonderful breakfast Dawn and Rob had made, and not one eggshell was found.
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After breakfast, Heather excitedly chattered to Rob while Dawn excused herself to get dressed, then the three headed outside to finish painting the house.
It was hot work; though there was a nice breeze blowing, it was still well over eighty degrees, and the sun was bearing down on them, but by lunch time they had the last side of the house finished.
Being the cleanest, and therefore the least likely to drop paint splatters all over, Dawn went inside to make sandwiches and get lemonade while Heather and Rob took a break on the front porch. The front door was open, and through the screen door Dawn could hear her daughter's laughter.
"Yeah, and it farts!" she giggled.
"Really?" Rob asked, surprised.
"Uh huh. And it smells, really bad, but he doesn't mind. He's supposed to guard the bridge, no matter what."
"Oh, I see.."
"But you know what? I kinda think it's like London bridge in that song… It falls down. It must not have been built very well," she said seriously.
"Or maybe it was just very, very old."
Dawn pushed the screen door open with a hip, and walked out balancing a plate piled with sandwiches on one hand, a stack of three plastic cups tucked under her arm, and a blue pitcher of lemonade in the other hand. Rob quickly stood up and relieved her of the cups and lemonade.
They all sat down on the swing at the end of the porch, and Dawn passed out sandwiches.
"A fluffernutter for you," she said, and passed one to Heather.
"A chicken sandwich for me," she put one to the side of the plate, "and I didn't know what type you would want," she said to Rob. "Any preference?"
He looked down at Heather's quickly-disappearing sandwich. "What exactly is a fluffy-nutter?"
"It's a fluffernutter." Heather piped up. "It's like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but it's got marshmallow cream instead of jelly. They're good."
"They're messy," Dawn warned, and gestured to her sticky-smeared child. Heather just grinned.
Rob looked at Dawn. "I was never overly fond of chicken, so let's try the fluffy-nutter."
A half an hour later, they had finished their lemonade and sandwiches, and covered in white smears (Dawn couldn't tell what was paint and what was marshmallow), they went back to work.
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Tired, covered in paint smears, and slightly sunburned, the three wearily made their way inside later that night. They'd finished painting the garage, so Heather happily announced that they were entirely done with painting. This just prompted groans from the adults, who were sore from having done most of the painting, and didn't want to have to think of another drop of it for years to come.
Dawn sent Heather upstairs to shower and get into pajamas while they waited for a frozen pizza to bake in the oven. By the time the pizza had finished baking, Rob and Dawn had the table set for three, laid out wine glasses for two, a glass of chocolate milk for one, and Heather had finished showering and came downstairs. Hungry from the day's work, they quickly finished the pizza.
Because it was a Saturday, and since their whole day had been spent working, Dawn let Heather stay up and watch cartoons again. The three of them sat together on the couch; Heather on the left side and Dawn on the right, with Rob sitting between them. Heather quickly finished her chocolate milk, and during a commercial, ran her glass to the kitchen sink, then ran back so she could sit next to Rob again. Snuggling up next to him, she put her head on his arm and continued to watch cartoons. Dawn watched Rob's reaction to this and smiled when he simply adjusted to make her more comfortable, lifting his arm to put it around the small girl.
While Heather was deeply engrossed in her cartoons, Dawn and Rob continued to slowly drink their wine, refilling glasses as needed from the bottle Dawn had left on the coffee table in front of the couch. While the cartoons were not incredibly entertaining to them, they were content to simply relax and let the alcohol slowly numb their sore bodies.
Another long cartoon show ended and Rob looked up at the clock above the TV. In the dimly lit room, he could just make out that it read two in the morning. He looked down at Heather, and was not surprised to see her asleep, leaning heavily against him, mouth slightly open. Leaning forward carefully, he put his empty glass down and picked up the wine bottle.
"Would you care for.." he started whispering, then looked at Dawn. She too, was asleep, her head leaning back against the couch. Her almost-empty glass was held precariously in one hand, so he gently relieved her of it, and set it on the coffee table next to his. Rob took off his glasses, placed them gently on the table, and gently moved Dawn so she was leaning against him. She stirred in her sleep slightly when he put his arm back down around her, but quieted. Sighing, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
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Dawn felt the first vague glimmers of consciousness as she stirred slightly, stretching one arm and putting it back down as she made herself comfortable again. She squeezed her warm pillow gently and jumped when it moved. Making herself wake up, she sat up and realized they'd fallen asleep on the couch. The clock said it was three thirty in the morning, and the TV was still on. Rob was leaning back against the couch, a pillow propped up under his head, snoring lightly. Heather was curled up in a ball on Rob's left, her head placed on his leg. They both looked so serene.
Smiling, and wishing she had a camera, she shut the TV off, picked up the wine bottle and took it to the kitchen. She quietly made her way back and picked up the two glasses, when she noticed Rob looking at her.
"Care to guess which one of you two fell asleep first?" he whispered, grinning.
Dawn smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm sure it was close though." She bent down and moved the coffee table out of the way so she could walk between it and the couch more easily. "Here, I'll take her upstairs."
"No, no, it's okay." Rob carefully lifted Heather's head from his leg and gently placed it back down on the couch. "I'll carry her." Standing up, he carefully slipped his hands under her and lifted her as if she were feather-light. "Can you lead the way?" Dawn nodded, forgetting he'd never been upstairs.
She walked a few feet ahead of him, turning on a light here or there so he could see. They got to Heather's room and she opened the door, then pulled back the covers on the bed. Rob had to walk through the door sideways carrying the girl, but made it, and gently placed her in her bed. Dawn pulled the covers up to her shoulders, and they quietly left the room, shutting the door behind them.
"Thank you," Dawn told him.
"You're very welcome." He looked around a little bit.
"Oh! Let me show you the place. It's not much, but its been in the family for years." She padded down the hallway, and he followed her. "You've seen Heather's room now, and this is just storage closet.." she passed one door.
"Here is our other bathroom," she pushed one door open and flipped on the light. A small, but functional bathroom. "Nothing spectacular." He nodded, so she flipped off the light and kept walking.
"And this was a bedroom, but I made it into my studio." She flipped the light on and walked inside.
Rob took in the furnishings; a small easel table covered with paints, brushes, and a canvas, an old leather chair, and several small shelving units containing supplies and various odds and ends. His eyes roamed back to the table with the canvas and he walked forward to it. Several finished paintings hung on the wall above it.
"You do these?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Dawn nodded. "They're.. wow, they're amazing."
Dawn blushed. "Thank you."
He examined each painting carefully, astounded. One showed a stretch of coastline, sparsely covered with sea-grass and shells, the ocean and a beautiful sunset on the horizon. "That one I saw in a travel magazine and thought it was beautiful. I'm not sure where it is but I'd love to find out and go there someday." Rob nodded.
The one above that showed a small baby with almost white hair, wrapped up in a pink blanket. Her eyes were wide open, taking in her surroundings.
Dawn smiled. "That's Heather, when she was just born. We had her picture taken and I made that during the next few months, during the days when she would sleep…
"This one up here," she pointed to the top-most canvas, which showed a several small tents, lots of pine trees, and a lake in the background, "is of a small town in northern Michigan. We went camping there when I was a small girl, and I always loved it. It's very scenic." She pointed to the one beneath that. "That one, you can tell, is another painting of Heather."
Rob smiled. This one must have been done recently; a slightly younger version of the child sleeping in the other room was sitting on the swing on the front porch, covered in a white substance.
"If I had to guess what the white smears are, I'd say.. oh, fluffy-nutter?" Dawn nodded, grinning. Rob nodded again.
He looked at the last painting that was hanging on the wall and his heart stopped for a moment. "Who is this?" he asked, managing not to sound too surprised.
Dawn gave him a wry grin. "This ugly character is my interpretation of one of the people in Heather's book she's having me read." Rob nodded. Everything, from the weathered, wrinkly face, to that hideous vest he always insisted on wearing, was perfect. She'd painted Hoggle.
"I see."
Dawn laughed. "Well don't sound so enthusiastic about it! I know he's not the best of my paintings, but more are in the works.." she winked at him.
"May I see them?" he asked, curiosity piqued after the last painting.
"Nuh-uh. No one gets to see my pictures until they're all finished. They don't look right otherwise."
"Oh."
She turned and started walking out of the room. "Come on, I've still got a bit more to show you.."
Rob made himself turn and follow her, but kept his eyes glued to that painting until he was around the corner. At which point he nearly ran her over. She'd stopped just inside the doorway of the next room.
"And this is my room."
This bedroom was mostly unchanged from the previous years. The carpet and wallpaper had been replaced with new at some point, but everything else was mostly the same. A large bed sat in the middle of the room, nightstands on either side of it. Framed pictures on the wall showed Dawn's family; her daughter, her mother, a dark haired man he assumed was Dawn's father, and another fairer-haired man, and an elderly couple together in one frame. This photo appeared the oldest of them all, so he guessed that was Dawn's uncle and grandparents. The only thing that had really changed was the occupant.
"Very nice." He walked over to the photos on the wall. "Ah, yes, there's the photo you meant of Heather as a baby." Dawn nodded. "It looks just like your canvas."
"Thank you."
Rob perused the other faces in the pictures. "I recognize your mother from the pictures in the living room.." he looked back at Dawn. "But who are the others, if you don't mind my asking?"
Dawn shook her head. "Not at all. Here's my mother and father, Jake. This picture is of my Uncle Toby, and my grandparents, Karen and Robert. They're all deceased though." She sighed and flopped down on the bed. "It's just me and Heather now. But we're doing okay." This she seemed to say to herself more than Rob.
Rob looked back at the pictures, specifically the one of Sarah, Dawn and Heather together, and the one of Dawn holding an infant daughter in the hospital.
"Has he passed on, as well?" he asked quietly.
"Who?" Dawn asked, rising and stepping closer to hear him.
"Heather's father," he clarified. He looked at Dawn and she seemed crushed.
"Oh." She said quietly, and sat back down on the bed, looking at her hands. Rob waited for a minute, not sure if she would answer.
"No." she replied softly after a minute or two. She looked back up at Rob. "No," she repeated more firmly. "Heather has never known her father…" her voice grew harsher. "And I barely did."
Rob, at a loss for words, stood there, silent.
Dawn looked up at him suddenly. "Here, have a seat," she said quietly, and patted the bed. He did, and she stood up, walked across the room, and picked up a large book from one of her bookshelves. She walked back over to the bed and sat down next to him. Opening it, she turned a few pages and handed it to him.
"Almost nine years ago, one of my friends was having a big Halloween party at her house for a bunch of friends. It was a masquerade party, so we had to dress up." She pointed to a few pictures of people in costumes, all smiling behind various masks or makeup. Rob assumed Dawn was the woman wearing a short, forest-green dress. He supposed she was supposed to be a fairy or something along that lines; she sported wings, had her hair styled nicely in curls, and carried a glittery wand.
"Everyone had fun, and after they had all gone home, me and my friend went to a bar right up the road from my apartment for a drink. It was crazy. Since it was Halloween, everyone there was dressed up. Even the bartenders had headbands with cat ears, and a tail or something." He saw a few more pictures; Dawn in her green dress and her friend, dressed as a tiger, posing together in one shot. More random people populated the other pictures.
"My friend had to work early the next day, so she left early and drove home. Since I lived right up the road, I decided to stay for a while longer."
Rob nodded. He could tell this story was becoming harder for her to tell; her voice was still clear, but she was having to take small pauses before speaking.
"I'd had a few drinks, but was nowhere near drunk. The bar started emptying out as people had to leave, and I was almost ready to leave too when the bartender put a drink on the counter in front of me and told me it was from a man sitting up the bar. I looked and there was a dark-haired man, dressed all in black, with a crow's mask on. I waved him over, and thanked him for the drink. We started talking; he was very polite, and friendly, and we really seemed to hit it off right away.
"The bar closed, so everyone had to go home. I'd had such a good time with him, I decided to ask him if he'd like to come back to my apartment for a little while. He agreed, and we went home and just kept talking. We really had a phenomenal connection, it was amazing." She took a deep breath and Rob held out his hand for hers. She took it gratefully and continued. "We kept talking, late into the night, and by the end of the night I knew I had to see him again. He.." her voice grew harder again, "he told me he loved me. That I was different from all the girls he ever knew, and that he would spend eternity with me if he could." Rob nodded.
"We ended up sleeping together," she grimaced. "I don't know why, I'd never do something like that, especially with someone from a bar, but something about this man, I just knew we'd be together in the end. I believed his declarations of love."
Rob sat still and listened to her words, rubbing his thumb over her fingers as he held her hand.
"At some point afterwards he looked at the clock and couldn't believe how late it was. He said he had to leave. I tried to give him my phone number, but he said it wouldn't work. He'd find me again, soon. He quickly dressed, told me he loved me, said he'd find me again, and left.
"I waited for him. Other than work, I went right home every day, wanting to be there when he showed up again. I went to the bar too, almost daily at first. Asked the bartender every day if anyone had been looking for me, if any of them had seen a dark haired man. They always said no.
"I hung onto the hope that he would show up for weeks. I guess one day it finally sunk in. He wasn't coming back. It wasn't long after that that I knew I was pregnant." She hung her head. "I had to tell my mom. I couldn't do it over the phone, I had to drive up here to tell her in person. She helped out as much as she could while I was pregnant, and I ended up quitting my job and moving closer to her house."
Rob could feel her shaking. She was struggling to retain control at this point.
"When Heather was born, I could only tell the hospital the first name of her father," she choked out. "Twenty-nine years old or not, it didn't matter. I was unmarried, living on my own, and didn't have a clue how to start tracking this guy down to tell him he was a father, if he even cared." And she started crying.
Rob put the book of photos aside on the bed and pulled Dawn to him. She flung her arms around him and buried her head into his shoulder, trying to quiet her sobs. He just held her and let her cry, knowing that she'd needed someone to listen to her for some time. She'd been alone for a long time.
Rob thought over what she'd said. He knew people were sometimes ruthless, lying and manipulating to get what they desired.. But if he ever met this dark-haired man.. He hadn't known Dawn and Heather that long, but he already felt a fierce urge to protect them. Against anything, anyone, anywhere. They already felt like family.
After a short while her sobs faded, and she quieted entirely, though he could still feel her body jerking. She didn't quite have her breathing under control yet. He rubbed her back and just held her in a hug. She eventually slowed her breathing, and gave him a hug.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
Rob just nodded.
Dawn sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Well," she gave a weak smile, "now you know how Heather came to be."
"I'm so sorry," Rob finally managed.
Dawn quickly shook her head. "No, don't be. Heather is the best thing in my life."
"I didn't mean Heather." He looked at her hand he still held and squeezed it. "I meant you." He looked up at her. "I'm sorry that anyone would ever do that to you."
Dawn shrugged. "I guess bad things happen to a lot of good people." She wiped her eyes again. "But that was a long time ago. Heather and I are so lucky to have you, Rob." She leaned forward and gave him another hug. "You're her 'honorary grandpa,' she says."
Rob smiled. A grandpa.
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And now for those of you who've read this far, a treat to keep you reading. Though it will probably be edited (heavily?!), here's a bit that's coming up..
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Jareth charged up the stairs to his bedchambers, taking them three and four at a time, not caring if he was being loud or drawing unwanted stares. Throwing open the door at the top, he strode into his room, and walked straight to a bureau against the far wall. Yanking his pendant over his head, he fit the shape into the recessed area and turned it, triggering the locking mechanism. He pulled open the bottom drawer and immediately found what he sought: a small, plain wooden box. He passed his hand over the box, and it opened, revealing a small crystal ball. A specific crystal ball. One he hadn't laid eyes on in over a year.
Picking up the sphere, he gazed into it.
"Show me what she saw!" he demanded.
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Jareth dropped the ball.
She knew she was going to die, and that it was too late for Jareth to save her…
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Hehe, I'm evil. Please read and review. Ask nicely, and I may give you a hint. ;-)
