Sliced Bread 2: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

A few details for posterity before I can move on with my present-day life.


The fight in which Bob and Cassie took down Redburn in the hallway under the theater was apparently quite a vigorous one. I don't have a play-by-play, but the deciding factor turned out to be that Bob and Cassie were just too fast for Redburn to react to effectively for long. Maybe next time when Bob tells me that he's done this before I'll listen to him. Redburn has also been turned over to Mr. Scarab for processing.


I asked Greyghost about the giant. He said, "It was an anticlimax. The giant turned out to be a seven-foot-tall human. It took me long enough to find that out, and when I did, I instructed the wizard to send me to where you two were. He was reluctant, and when he finally agreed, you were back in this world already. I reappeared in the office, and deduced your location from the blueprints on your desk."

"So I guess there was nothing more to stick around for in that world, huh?"

"Mm. Why do you ask?"

"Oh. Just, you know, something to say." I'm not sure he bought it.


Cassie and I had a good time that evening. I introduced her to Herbet's Sherbet, the best ice cream store in town. (That I know of.) She had strawberry; I'm a Pralines'n'Cream guy from way back. We've gone out several times since then and haven't found a reason to stop yet.

One thing, though. And this is something that bites me every time I start going out with somebody. Well, wait, I'll set it up.

A few nights ago. Cassie and I are getting back from a movie. I start to begin to move in to kiss her. She correctly interprets this, and says, "Not yet."

"Not yet?"

"I mean, I'm not a prude or anything; I just like this part of a relationship, when you haven't kissed yet, and there's anticipation and whatnot. But when it's over, it's over. So I just want to prolong it a little more."

And I didn't mind. Really, I didn't. In fact, on one level, I kind of agreed with her. But the point is, that was her idea of what she wants out of the relationship. Not mine, hers. And I've got ideas she doesn't have.

So what I'm getting at is this. It's hard enough for anyone to get his or her ideas to work out. So how much harder is it for two people to get their separate ideas to work out, in the same relationship, especially when most of us don't even know what the hell we want in the first place?

I admit that this is not a profound insight. All I'm saying is, it strikes me every time I start going out with someone, that I'm dealing with an entirely different person here and it's impossible to know what that involves. And every time, it feels like I've never realized that before.


All caught up now. Whatever I post next will be about something that hasn't happened yet.