Brushing away her fears, Rhoda reached for the receiver, then dropped her hand. No, she could just see her daughter's face, red with anger, as two armed policemen escorted her to the door. Already Marcie had told her she was too old-fashioned, not letting her go out as often as she wanted.

"Oh!"

Rhoda jumped, nearly overturning the kitchen table chair she was sitting on. A noise in the doorway startled her. Oh, it was only the dog.

"Come here, Rex. That's a good boy," she crooned, scratching the large Irish Setter's ears. At least this was one being that didn't turn away from her. How it hurt Rhoda to see her daughter growing distant from her. She'd given her life to raise Marcie. Everything she did, she did for her daughter. And now the teenager was… she didn't want to think about it any more. Petting the big dog's head, Rhoda straightened up, running her fingers through her long blonde hair. She decided to climb out of her white nurse's uniform, take a shower, then see if her daughter had returned home. If not, she'd call the cops.

"No, no!" she said, smacking Rex lightly on the head.

He was swirling around her feet, rubbing his body up against her ankles.

Rex whined, stopping at the foot of the stairs and tilting his head to one side. Rhoda climbed halfway up, turning around and shaking her finger at him again.

"No, bad boy. You stay down there and guard the house," she said.

As she resumed her climb upstairs. She entered her bedroom and looked at her reflection in the full length mirror.

"No, you're not so bad-looking, Rhoda," she said softly as she reached behind her neck to unzip her uniform.

Men. Once again someone had made a pass at her. At least it wasn't some filthy laundry man. This time it was Dr. Jack Warner, one of the hospital's hot-shot interns. It's amazing how, fast they work, she thought, stepping out of her formfitting outfit, then reaching down and pulling off her panties. They had only gone two floors and he was already pawing her. Rhoda tried to push him off her without offending him. After all, she depended upon the good will of the medical staff to make her job easy.