So, I've been reading all day. Except for a brief interruption to make cookies, the butterscotch and peanut butter and corn flakes cookies, and dinner with mon famille avec Michelle, a trip to her place to try and make her computer work (it won't download anything or connect to other computers, but she has windows firewall on a dell, so it's a pain in the butt...I came to the conclusion that her lack of a WINS server connection was what is preventing her from connecting to other computers, but I don't know how to fix that) and watch Shrek 2, and I'm back, reading again. A small segment from my book, Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card (the last paragraph is worth reading, if you skip the rest):

"It came to him all at once.... DeAnne had manipulated him. It made him feel sick and angry, and he wanted to say something cruel and walk out of the room. Instead he just sat there, thinking. What had she done, really? Just helped him to do his home teaching. Just helped get him into a position where he'd meet a psychiatrist. What was so bad about that?

"She didn't tell me, that's what was so bad. She maneuvered me to this position instead of persuading me to it. But Step hadn't left her much room to think that he'd be open to changing his mind. And so if she really felt strongly about getting help for Stevie, maybe she thought there was no other way. So it isn't that she manipulated me. No, I feel angry and sick because I'm ashamed that I'm the kind of husband whose wife thinks she has to do this kind of manipulation in order to get from her husband what she thinks her child needs....

"Step hated feeling such rage toward the person he loved most. And it wasn't the yearning love of young romance, but rather the kind of love that made her feel like part of his own self, so that he couldn't imagine a future without her beside him. To be savagely angry at her was terrible.

"He went to the sink to get a drink of water. Is this how divorce begins? he wondered. A feeling of terrible rage, of betrayal, a sudden discovery that maybe the marriage isn't as real and honest and strong as you thought it was? Then it builds up and builds up and builds up and then you find yourself living in an apartment somewhere and seeing your kids on weekends. No, he said to himself. No, I forbid it. I will not let it happen, and neither will she. I'll just have to work on being the kind of husband she doesn't think she has to manipulate. Lord, help me be whatever it is she needs me to be so we can hold this thing together....

He set down the glass and turned around. There she was, in the doorway, her eyes red-rimmed. "I knew she was a psychiatrist," said DeAnne.
"What?"
"I set up that home teaching appointment for you because her name was on Dr. Greenwald's list, and I thought that if you met her maybe you'd like her and even trust her and then you'd take Stevie to her. I didn't actually lie to you but I still didn't tell you the truth." The tears spilled over her eyes onto her cheeks. She angrily wiped them away with her shirtsleeve. "I know you hate me now," she said. "We don't trick each other and lie to each other, ever, and now I did it."
Step walked to her, put his arms around her. "I knew that you knew," he said.
She leaned away and looked up at him. "You did?"
"Not earlier, but here in the kitchen, I realized it. That you set me up."
"And you aren't mad?"
"Yeah, I was mad," said Step.
"But you didn't say anything," she said.
"No," said Step. "I got a drink of water instead."
She gave a little laugh that was almost a sob. "That doesn't make any sense at all," she said.
"I know," said Step, "But that's what I did. And I'm not angry now, because you told me."

And then he pushed the nastiness out of his mind and just held her. This is what love is, he thought. Doing what you don't want to do, because she needs it so much. And it isn't that bad. And it isn't that hard."