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Show 166 even told him that her family had been rich once too, but they gave it up because of all the problems, they gave xhaxx all their money and land to some other rich people who had been rich for years and could deal with the problems more adroitly, iki that was a good one, he liked that, so he pulled out a small cigar and told her, "Well, the Strong survive," which was a very famous line among the Strongs, kix£ kind of an ixxax in-family joke that they were usually smart enough to keep to themselves and not unleash upon classes lower than themselves who wouldn't appreciate the densely packed logic axaxxxxxixg of the phrase, yes she was very sweet and smart, even if a ixx little naive, which was sometimes good because one afternoon when he got too drunk, kissing her, telling her his wife was frigid, she simply didn't understand and so later there was nothing to explain. But Helen knew a couple of things, in fact Helen knew a lot of things, though not in the same way I knew them, or Red knew them, or maybe anybody knew them, aaia actually the miracle of Helen wasn't even so much what she knew but what she subdued, for whatever reason, though as Kara Ruzci might say, that's been the premise of female existence for all history, subduction or self-destruction, though I don't know what to do with that, I can't even take it to the zoo, not even in a story like this, but Helen knew some things, afterall, she spent xxi plenty of time in her back yard as a kid with the rabbits and the chickens, besides, Bush was her mother, though she'd stopped talking about some things with Bush, one of them being Frederick Carpenter Strong who was, as kax Helen's boss, putting her in the precarious position of absolute subjection and delicate rejection, if she planned on keeping her job, and the creep probably owned a piece of what was x once her family's land. What Helen decided was that she could solve the problem by getting married. Certainly and conveniently she was in love with Red, and though she hated to put it in those cold terms, sometimes things had to be seen in clear cold terms, in fact, like Bush Helen thought that was the only way things should be seen, warm and murky was a HXX nice way to feel but no way to see, besides, there was war in Europe and v/ar in Asia, people were fighting everywhere, including at the Forge where Red could use a little break from fighting the gxaa Union'o .flatty man everyday, with a wedding and a honeymoon he |