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Show Woodworth/115 seeing the results of her handiwork?" The noose. Marty's responsibility. What's expected. Where's Megan? Where's Jake? "She sure doesn't act like she thinks of me as a satisfaction." "You're her greatest pride. She gave up a lot, and devoted years to raising you. She wants you to be perfect. For yourself, naturally. But to kind of justify what she did. I don't know that perfect is the word, really. She has exacting standards for you, I guess. But doesn't love you any less if you don't attain them." Head bowed, Marty studies the rag in her hand. A sermon. That's what this feels like, a sermon. A sermon to the unworthy. She should be cleansed first, her afternoon at the motel lingers. Purification. Does she still smell of Gary, of sex? "Can you imagine what it would be like to give up what you wanted to do. Say if you gave up writing, or painting. And became a...a computer programmer. But you did it for a very good reason. Not because you liked it, necessarily. But because you had an idea about a way to program a computer so it could cure cancer. You spend twenty or thirty years developing that program. If you got to the end of that time, and you hadn't found a cure for cancer, but you had found a way to slow the process down by 75f°> wouldn't you want to be proud of yourself?" Marty nods. "Then how would you feel if everyone started telling you that you were a complete failure because you hadn't cured cancer one hundred percent?" "But I don't call my mother a complete failure." "You probably don't even need to call her a failure. She |