She had been through such an experience before when Kevin had almost died of pneumonia as a child. Her head had been just as confused, alternately headachy and clear like a radio message traveling through intermittent waves of static.

She tried hard to concentrate on what she really saw through the car windows. After all, it was a beautiful day outside. The sky was a vivid blue, the clouds, puffs of pure white. Sprinklers whirred on freshly cut front lawns. There was the sound of an electric mower somewhere, though she could not see it. But the refreshment of her senses would not last. She found her heart falling into the much of self-pity as hard as she tried to prevent it. Angry, with deep revulsion, she imagined how Natalie had plotted the downfall of Tom Rouelle. His son Kevin was not enough for a whore like Natalie. Oh, no, she had to fuck the whole damn family! Seething with fury, Liz did not notice how the word 'fuck' fit naturally into her thoughts! But perhaps her definition of moderation was shifting!

Another surge of tears flooded her eyes. It became too difficult to see the road, and she pulled over to the curbing to wipe her eyes. She thought of driving to the beach or the hills, but she had seen too much this morning to solve her problems by driving around crazily like this. She couldn't erase the memory of Natalie moving her wetly sucking lips up and down over her husband's lust-hardened prick. She recalled, too, the expression on his face with guilty curiosity. She had never seen anything like it when she and he made love together, but she never would have performed an act like that on him, either. Then to her mind, Natalie and Tom became lower than the lowest animals through the very fact that they had consented to defile themselves like that! It was far easier for her to understand the mental concepts of fidelity and chastity than emotional depths she had never felt!