[color=yellow]"Have you eaten this morning, Miss Wright?"[/color]

Kimmie considered Roger's question a moment. She hated opening and, potentially, gratefully showing him any appreciation for [i]anything[/i]. But it [i]had[/i] been almost 16 hours since she'd put any food in her belly, and just the mention of food now made her stomach roll over anxiously. She was about to give Roger a blunt [i]No[/i] as an answer, but he turned his attention back to the Doctor, making inquiries as to whether it wouldn't be better for Lizzie to remain in the clinic overnight.

Again, Kimmie's jaws clenched tightly in a combination of blood pressure-increasing emotions. Just as the Doctor did, she knew this was simply Roger's way of keeping her in town for the night. Kimmie had hoped to deliver the little girl to the clinic for treatment, drop her panties to [i]pay[/i] for the potentially life-saving service, and then get the hell out of town, all just as quickly as possible.

That didn't happen, though. Before long, she was reluctantly taking Roger's hand as she exited the unstable vehicle. The man asked politely, [color=yellow]"Shall we, Miss Wright ... Kimberly?"[/color]

She led the way up the walk to the house, stopping at the door to allow her [i]host[/i] to open it. She hesitated before passing over the threshold, as if still deciding whether or not to enter the house at all. But, enter she did, feeling an anxious chill rush up her spine again. 

Inside, you would never have known the Blackout had occurred if it weren't for two major changes to the home's interior. To Kimmie's left was the living room, to her right the dining room, and directly before her the stairs to the second floor and the hall to the kitchen. In none of these rooms did you see [i]anything[/i] that had once used electricity, with the exception of some of the fixtures in the walls or ceiling, such as lights, sockets, and switches. None of these had a purpose anymore, of course, but removing them would have been a waste of time and, in some instances, would have resulted in holes in the walls or ceilings.  

The other post-Blackout change was the lighting: oil lamps and candles abounded throughout the home. In addition to light, they offered the fireplace a bit of help in keeping the home warm, Kimmie imagined. She could just imagine the amount of firewood Roger had burned through this past winter to keep the place comfortable. She could just imagine how many trips his one-armed slave had made out to the wood pile, too. 

As she had in the past, Kimmie thought to herself, [i]I wonder where Sykes sleeps at night? The basement, all dank and dark and cold?[/i] She somehow doubted that Roger allowed the indentured servant to sleep in one of the actual bedrooms. She wouldn't know, though; Kimmie had only ever been in the home's living room, master bedroom, kitchen, and dining room before. Oh, and the bathroom, too.

[color=red]"I'll get bathed,"[/color]

She headed almost immediately for the bathroom and its big bathtub. Kimmie wanted to get this done and over with, and Roger always had her bathe -- sometimes with his company, either near the tub or in it -- if he had gone to the bother of actually bringing her to his home for her [i]payment[/i]. She shed her jacket, laying it over the back of the couch, and began unbuttoning her unflattering yet very utilitarian flannel shirt on the way to the bathroom off the hall.