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Show 79 villa, and I could give you a bunch of reasons which only maybe would convince you. I could say I didn't want to have only elderly neighbors, or live in a geriatric group. Or that I refused to live somewhere where I couldn't have my grandchildren come to spend a week, with their tricycles and their chewing gum and their nonstop noise. I could say the place is too sheltered, or that I'm politically opposed to walls; I could tell you I don't like bridge or pinochle or poetry guilds or any sort of craftwork at all." She feels Rod tense, but she lays her hand on him to stop, and continues: "I just don't want it, that's all. I mean, suppose someone offers you a cruise on an ocean liner, and you know exactly what it will be, when the meals will be served, what sorts of clothes the first-class passengers wear, where the shuffleboard courts are, the swimming pools, what time the dancing will end at night. You wouldn't have to go, would you?" "But it would be fun," says Evan. "You'd meet interesting people, you'd see the sunsets on the ocean, you'd learn interesting new things." "I've had fun," she answers. "I've met interesting people, learned fascinating things. But I'm ready to be alone now, I just simply don't want any more. I love you all, but I want you to let me go." There is no answer. "I want you to let me go," Annis repeats. There is a long silence again, but Rod's urgent breathing becomes more audible in the dark. "Stop it," he finally explodes. "That's just unthinkable, you can't. You just plain can't. You ought to be in the hospital." "Besides," Evan adds, "think what it would do to Dad." |