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damnedest thing, Doc? I figur' the skeeter what bit me must be the size of an armadillo!"
                  Saul was not at all sure that the abscess on Charlie's nose had resulted from a mosquito bite.
                  "Listen, Charlie, I'm going to have to open that thing up and have a sample of its contents analyzed."
                  "Yer gonna have to do what?! Na, I don't think so, Doc."
                  "Charlie, I can't treat you properly unless I know exactly what it is we're dealing with. All I need to do is stick a needle in, withdraw some fluid, then allow the absc...boil to drain. I doubt that it will hurt you at all; in fact, the pain you're experiencing now will probably subside once the pressure has been relieved."
                  “I donn o ”  Charlie didn't sound convinced.
                  "All right, here's the deal. I'll spray some anesthetic on the area first. It'll feel cold and numb your nose for awhile."
                  "Shit! Can't we just wait fer the fucker to start drainin' on its own?"
                  "Charlie..."
                  Charlie finally gave in.
                  "Aw, hell, let's get it over with! But I'm warnin' ya, Doc, first twinge of pain, I'm haulin' ass outta here!"
                  Twenty minutes later, Charlie was still sitting in the examination room. Saul had drained the abscess and dressed it with a topical antibiotic. The stench from the fluid that had oozed from the top of Charlie's nose had caused both men to gag and Saul was fearful of what the lab results would show. 
                  "Charlie, it's going to take at least twenty-four hours to get a preliminary report back on that fluid. In the meantime, I want to get you started on an antibiotic. I'll need to give you a dose now, through one of the veins in your arm, and then again later this evening."
                  "Aw, shit, not another needle!"
     
                  It had been a busy day for Saul and he was exhausted. He had already made four house calls and the Forsythe place was, thankfully, his last stop. Saul planned to give Charlie his second dose of antibiotic and then head home for the night. 
                  Saul stepped up on the Forsythe's front porch and reached out to ring the doorbell; a tiny voice, however, stopped him dead in his tracks.
                  "I don't like being dead, Dr. Feener."
                  Saul Feener turned quickly to his right and found himself face-to-face with the floating visage of Hillie Perkins.

CHAPTER TWENTY
     
     
    The Third Night
                  Night had turned to day and then to night again as Tamara and Starr took turns sitting with Paul. Starr finally left to feed Penelope and get cleaned up prior to meeting Patsy and Marybeth at the airport.
                  As her husband slept, Tamara studied his face. God, she thought, I love this man so much.              The seedling values that the Forsythes cultivated in the sixties had ripened over the years to become the nourishment for their marriage. Because of their shared belief in love, commitment, passion, and compassion, their respect for one another had deepened with each passing year. Paul and Tamara were, however, only human and consequently not immune to the disagreements, frustrations, and dissatisfactions that crop up in any relationship. In point of fact, one particular dispute had almost been the couple's undoing.  Paul was a very tolerant man who had always believed that diverse ideologies and philosophies possess varying degrees of merit and, as a result, deserve investigation rather than condemnation. There was, however, one glaring exception to his tolerant and inquisitive nature--organized religion and its reliance on an omniscient and omnipotent deity. In short, despite