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Show 50 "Ask it if it likes sex," Bill suggested. "Be serious, you guys," Karen said. Lorin wished he had brought a cup of punch in with him so he could have something to hold. He didn't know what to do with his hands. People were crowded so close together he was almost certain to brush someone with them if he let them hang at his sides. "I'll bet Karen and Dave are cheating," Chloe Ann said. "You're not supposed to all talk at once," Karen said. "It makes undeveloped influences." Marsha appeared in the doorway, still wearing her dishtowel. "I'm supposed to tell everybody the cake is cut." "We'll be there in a minute," Karen said. Marsha stood watching people's backs and then shrugged and left the doorway. Except that she was still too young, Lorin had always thought Marsha might be worth his while. She was prettier than her big sister, for one thing. They looked very much alike, but Karen was already a little overripe in the arms and body; her face was a little too fleshy, and once when he had seen her coughing into her fist-she had swallowed something the wrong way-he had seen the bloated and wattled face of the middle-aged woman she was going to become. Marsha was going to age better. He had seen Marsha in a leotard after her dance class and had come away with the impression of a clean, taut little body that would move quickly and never go soft. She had a vacuous way of grinning at you and pushing her glasses back up on her nose, and she was probably not as bright as Karen, but he wasn't planning to marry her. Vicky was going to have eight children, they had just discovered. "How do you feel, Vicky?" Dick asked. "Looks like I'm going to be busy, doesn't it?" Vicky said. Someone |