Summer story contest: Summer clothing sale
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2020 8:43 pm
The summer was beginning and the temperatures were rising. Hannah stood in front of her wardrobe. It was a mess. Last year, she had changed her style completely. When she was young, she liked to dress alternative. But she felt she was getting too old for it. Her new style was pretty plain, as she usually wore a pair of jeans, a shirt and sneakers. Her wardrobe was a bit of both, a total chaos. She had to lose some of those clothes.
Fortunately, she knew someone who was organizing a yard sale this weekend. The sunny weather was perfect for it, so there was a good possibility that many people would come. Although they were not really friends, this girl, Becca, had offered her the opportunity to come and sell her stuff. When there were more sellers, Becca thought, even more people would come. So Hannah and some others were asked as well.
Hannah packed two big bags full of her old clothes and walked to Becca’s house. Although it was pretty early, the sun was shining bright, so she made sure she enjoyed the walk slowly. Wow, she thought as she saw the big house with the huge garden. Now she knew why Becca had asked her to come. This was not just a yard sale, it was almost a state fair. There were dozens of tables where stuff was sold and there were many people buying stuff. Hannah put her clothes on one of the unused tables and waited till the people came to her table.
Pretty soon, most of her stuff was gone and Hannah had made some good money. There were only a few pieces left. She tried to lower the price, but it didn’t matter. After almost an hour without a sell, Hannah was approached by Becca. “Hi sweetie, if you want to get rid of these clothes, you might give them away for free. They’re weird”.
“No way!” Hannah answered a bit insulted. “I won’t give them away. These clothes meant a lot to me once!”
“Well, you can always make them cheaper.” Becca grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in big letters with a marker.
EACH GARMENT ONLY $1!
Hannah didn’t really like this either, but she wanted to go home, because she still had some stuff to do. Maybe it would work. And it seemed to work indeed. The clothes still weren’t being sold very fast, but after an hour the last pieces were gone. Finally. Hannah was happy, because she made some good money. But she was a bit cranky as well. It was a lot later as she had expected. She had planned to be home already. She grabbed her bags and the piece of cardboard and hurried home.
After a couple of minutes, she came at a point where she had to choose which route to take. She could take the longer route, the one that she had also taken that morning. She could also take the shorter route, through a neighborhood that wasn’t that good. Hannah really wanted to go home and the summer sun was still shining bright, so she decided to take the short route.
She wasn’t really familiar with this neighborhood, but she knew which direction she had to take. To save time, she didn’t only walk the big streets. Sometimes she also took little alley ways, as long as she was going in the right direction. After a particularly long alley way, she knew she had to be almost at the end of the neighborhood. Her home was just a few blocks away. But there was one problem. She was staring at a wooden fence of 7 feet. She wasn’t willing to walk all the way back. That meant she had only two options. She could climb over it, or she could try to climb through the hole on the right of the fence. She was a bit afraid to climb over it, but the hole was more than three feet above the ground. Could she make it?
Hannah first pushed her empty bags and the cardboard through. Then she tried to climb through the hole. It was tough. As she was about halfway through, she got stuck. Realizing she couldn’t go forward anymore, she tried to back out. But that didn’t work either. Crap, she thought. Her toes just reached the floor on the backside of the fence and her fingertips could just reach the ground on the other side. When she tried to move, all of her weight was pushed on the fence, which hurt her so much, she immediately went back in her starting position. There was only one thing she could do now. She opened her mouth and started to yell.
“HELP. Is there someone who could help me!?”
It didn’t take long before Hannah was noticed. Three fifteen-year-old boys walked towards her.
“Hey, can you guys help me? I’m stuck.”
The guys couldn’t believe their eyes. In front of them was a beautiful brown-haired girl, stuck in a wooden fence. What they could see of her figure looked very athletic. She seemed a bit older than they were, at the beginning of her twenties perhaps.
“Well, I think we can help you”, one of the boys said while alerting his friends on the piece of cardboard. “Here’s two box”.
Hannah was confused. What did the boy mean? When the boys started to pull of her shirt, she understood. The cardboard off course! “No! I’m not selling the clothes that I’m wearing!”, she shouted to them.
“I think you should have said that before we bought them, you know”, the boy answered as they pulled her shirt over her head. Hannah tried to struggle, but the pain from leaning on the wooden fence made her stop immediately. She couldn’t do a thing. When the boys pulled her shirt off her arms, she realized the precarious position she was in. Her boobs were still covered, but only barely. She was showing the guys a lot more then she was used to showing people she didn’t know. But she feared they wouldn’t stop here.
She was right, off course. Soon she felt a hand on her back, fumbling with the clasp. It was clear he didn’t have a lot of experience with bras. Hannah would have thought it funny, had the situation been different. But now she only felt desperation. She prayed for the clasp to hold, for the boys to go away and leave her modesty alone. She prayed for the small layer of fabric shielding her B-cup boobs to stay in place. But then she felt the boy open the clasp, the strain of the straps loosening. The boy let go of her bra and there was nothing she could do to stop it from sliding down her arms. Her boobs were exposed.
All Hannah wanted to do at that moment was cover her boobs. But she couldn’t change the way she was supporting herself, couldn’t lift an arm to save her from those preying eyes. At first the boys were just staring in total silence, watching her boobs hang in front of them. In this position, Hannah looked more well-endowed than she actually was. She could easily pass for a C-cup.
The boys still didn’t do anything. It was as if they had never seen a boob before in their life. Perhaps, Hannah thought, that was the case. But then her thoughts were distracted by the sound of one of the guys voices.
“WOW”!
The other boys also escaped out of their trance. “Those are some nice titties”!
“Should we touch them”?
It was a nightmare for Hannah. She protested as much as she could, but to no avail. First she felt one of the boys cup her left breast and touch her nipple. Then the other boys joined in. She told them to stop, but they just continued. There was nothing she could do. Then something surprising happened. At first, she just felt her nipples stiffen. Then she felt a tingly sensation start between her legs. What was happening? She should just scream at the boys, tell them to stop, but instead she was enjoying it, even getting aroused a little. The idea that three boys could see and touch her boobs should have scared the shit out of her, but under all that embarrassment there was a tiny part of her that liked it. That craved for it.
After a couple of minutes, that felt like an eternity, Hannah finally had the chance to escape her precarious situation. She saw an older woman entering the street. She shouted for help immediately. The boys were startled for a moment, then two of them ran away with her clothes. The third grabbed his wallet, threw a 5-dollar bill before her on the ground and winked as he said: “Keep the change, honey”.
Hannah didn’t quite understand what the boy meant. But before she could really think about it, the older woman was coming towards her. She forgot about the boys and tried to get her to help.
“Ma’am, can you help me. I’m stuck and my clothes are stolen. Please!”
“They stole your clothes you say? It seems to me like you sold them”, the woman said, pointing at the cardboard. “If you are one of those impertinent, impudent girls, I shouldn’t help you at all”.
But Hannah kept pleading and after some consideration, the woman called the firefighters for her.
Part 2
Brenda Adams was having the worst time. Although she had wanted to be a journalist for all of her life, this wasn’t what she signed up for. Her dream was some big news station, not local television. And now, because it was the slow news season, her boss had ordered her to go to the firefighters and make a story about them. The firefighters had welcomed her; they could always use good press. In the beginning, Brenda was pretty enthusiastic as well. If there was some big fire, her story might make it to national television. But she couldn’t have foreseen the boredom.
In ten days, not a thing had happened. The only thing the firefighters did, was clean, play cards and make jokes about the way she looked. She hated it. They had asked her multiple times if she wanted to join, that they would love to play strip poker with her. It disgusted her. Brenda’s camera man seemed to like it better. He played and joked with the rest of them.
One of the firefighters walked towards her. It was Ben, the captain. “There is an incident with a girl that’s stuck. Would you guys want to join?”
Crap. Brenda had hoped on a big fire. But even this would be better than a news item without any video. So off they went. After a short ride they arrived at their destination. Everyone exited the car and looked with wonder at the topless girl in the wooden fence.
But then the helpfulness of the firefighters set in and they walked to the girls like the professionals that they were.
Brenda saw a unique opportunity go up in smoke, right before her eyes. She couldn’t let that happen. “Stop!”, she yelled as she ran to the captain. “You guys treated me pretty bad these few days. I can give you some very bad press. But if you give me some minutes with this girl, I could be a bit more positive. Got it?”
The firefighters reluctantly agreed. Brenda walked to the girl. After she made sure that her camera man had a good angle, she started to talk to her.
“Hey miss, would you tell me your name and what happened?”
But Hannah didn’t answer. She realized she was being filmed nude and the last thing she wanted was to give her identity. Rescue was so close, the firefighters were already there. If she kept her mouth shut, they would surely help her and her embarrassment would end. But Brenda shattered those expectations.
“I have a deal with those firefighters. They’re not gonna help you till I say they can. So are you gonna talk to me?”
Hannah didn’t have a choice. She told her the whole story. The fact that she was being filmed nude and that it probably would be broadcast on television almost made her cry. She just wanted it all to be over.
After Hannah had told her story, Brenda asked her next question: “But you’ve got 7 dollars. Does that mean you are also nude on the other side of the fence”?
That was the moment Hannah realized what the boys were planning. It was also the moment she felt someone grab her legs and start to undo her shoes. She was shocked. She knew exactly what would come and didn’t like it one bit.
Hannah tried to kick the boys, but they held her legs. She could do nothing. Her sneakers were taken from her, her socks were taken as well and then she felt a hand fumbling with the button of her jeans. She begged the firefighters to free her, but no one did a thing. Her zipper opened and her jeans was peeled of her legs.
For a few seconds nothing happened. Hannah could almost feel the eyes of the boys on her athletic, panty clad ass. There was a tiny part of her that thought it was over, that they wouldn’t do anything else. But then she yelped in the microphone as she was pinched in her ass. The three boys felt her ass up a bit. After that, she felt a hand go under the waist band of her panties.
Her panties were yanked down and her legs were pulled apart. She felt the summer breeze tickle the inside of her legs, her butt and her pussy. She knew she was giving quite the show. They probably could see pieces of her few boys had ever seen. Perhaps they could even look inside her! She still tried to struggle, but it was in vain.
Then happened what Hannah had feared all along. She felt a finger touch her pussy, as if it was probing it. After a couple of seconds, the finger slipped inside. For an instance she was surprised that the finger could enter so easily, that she was so wet. But then the moving finger was all she could concentrate on. She felt other hands feel her up, more fingers enter, and the first moan came of her lips, right into the microphone.
Brenda couldn’t believe her eyes. This was magnificent! She repositioned the microphone, so it would catch al the noises the girl made. Meanwhile, Hannah had slowly given up on asking for help and was starting to moan louder and louder, clearly enjoying the attention she was given. Brenda was delighted. Everyone would like to see this. This could make her career!
Hannah was really loosing it. She even tried to move her lower body, tried to follow the rhythm of the fingers caressing her. There was a very small part of her that realized that she was filmed while she was moaning, that her boobs were shaking back and forth, and that everyone who would watch the video could see this. But she didn’t care anymore. There was only one thing left that was important to her. Release. She felt it come closer and closer and then the moment was there. She came harder and moaned louder than she ever did before. Her legs were pushed through the hole in the fence and Hannah landed on the ground.
Hannah just kept lying there, legs spread, sailing on the heavenly waves of pleasure. After almost a minute she looked up in the camera. Her shame returned and she covered herself immediately. But it was far too late. She had not a secret left. Hannah looked around her, searching for clothes, but all she could find were her sneakers under the hole. She ‘sold’ the rest to the boys. She tried to put her shoes on, finding her purse in one of them. At least they left her her money.
This was the moment the firefighters finally came in action. They brought her a fire blanket and put it around her. One firefighter even asked if they could bring her home, but Hannah was so embarrassed she just ran away as fast as she could. When she arrived at home, her thoughts were becoming a bit more clear. She felt utterly humiliated but was still very excited. She had never felt like that before and it was all she could think about.
Epilogue
The local news sender refused to publish the footage and showed only a few images in the news. Brenda, only thinking about eternal fame, posted the footage on the internet. Soon, it had thousands and thousands of hits. But it was Hannah who became famous, not Brenda.
The boys had had the time of their life. It was an event they wouldn’t forget.
For the firefighters, it was just another day on the job. Or was it? They too would remember the beautiful sight of the girl being stuck and look back at it with fond memories.
Brenda spent the rest of her days at the local news station, watching other colleagues realize the dream she had too, but never could fulfill.
Hannah tried to remove the footage of the internet, but soon noticed that the internet doesn’t forget. It took her a while to cope with the fact that most people she knew had seen her naked, had even seen her orgasm. But she succeeded, and acted as if it never happened. She never told anyone that she had some copies of the footage herself that she watched occasionally. It was the only way for her to feel like she had then.
Fortunately, she knew someone who was organizing a yard sale this weekend. The sunny weather was perfect for it, so there was a good possibility that many people would come. Although they were not really friends, this girl, Becca, had offered her the opportunity to come and sell her stuff. When there were more sellers, Becca thought, even more people would come. So Hannah and some others were asked as well.
Hannah packed two big bags full of her old clothes and walked to Becca’s house. Although it was pretty early, the sun was shining bright, so she made sure she enjoyed the walk slowly. Wow, she thought as she saw the big house with the huge garden. Now she knew why Becca had asked her to come. This was not just a yard sale, it was almost a state fair. There were dozens of tables where stuff was sold and there were many people buying stuff. Hannah put her clothes on one of the unused tables and waited till the people came to her table.
Pretty soon, most of her stuff was gone and Hannah had made some good money. There were only a few pieces left. She tried to lower the price, but it didn’t matter. After almost an hour without a sell, Hannah was approached by Becca. “Hi sweetie, if you want to get rid of these clothes, you might give them away for free. They’re weird”.
“No way!” Hannah answered a bit insulted. “I won’t give them away. These clothes meant a lot to me once!”
“Well, you can always make them cheaper.” Becca grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in big letters with a marker.
EACH GARMENT ONLY $1!
Hannah didn’t really like this either, but she wanted to go home, because she still had some stuff to do. Maybe it would work. And it seemed to work indeed. The clothes still weren’t being sold very fast, but after an hour the last pieces were gone. Finally. Hannah was happy, because she made some good money. But she was a bit cranky as well. It was a lot later as she had expected. She had planned to be home already. She grabbed her bags and the piece of cardboard and hurried home.
After a couple of minutes, she came at a point where she had to choose which route to take. She could take the longer route, the one that she had also taken that morning. She could also take the shorter route, through a neighborhood that wasn’t that good. Hannah really wanted to go home and the summer sun was still shining bright, so she decided to take the short route.
She wasn’t really familiar with this neighborhood, but she knew which direction she had to take. To save time, she didn’t only walk the big streets. Sometimes she also took little alley ways, as long as she was going in the right direction. After a particularly long alley way, she knew she had to be almost at the end of the neighborhood. Her home was just a few blocks away. But there was one problem. She was staring at a wooden fence of 7 feet. She wasn’t willing to walk all the way back. That meant she had only two options. She could climb over it, or she could try to climb through the hole on the right of the fence. She was a bit afraid to climb over it, but the hole was more than three feet above the ground. Could she make it?
Hannah first pushed her empty bags and the cardboard through. Then she tried to climb through the hole. It was tough. As she was about halfway through, she got stuck. Realizing she couldn’t go forward anymore, she tried to back out. But that didn’t work either. Crap, she thought. Her toes just reached the floor on the backside of the fence and her fingertips could just reach the ground on the other side. When she tried to move, all of her weight was pushed on the fence, which hurt her so much, she immediately went back in her starting position. There was only one thing she could do now. She opened her mouth and started to yell.
“HELP. Is there someone who could help me!?”
It didn’t take long before Hannah was noticed. Three fifteen-year-old boys walked towards her.
“Hey, can you guys help me? I’m stuck.”
The guys couldn’t believe their eyes. In front of them was a beautiful brown-haired girl, stuck in a wooden fence. What they could see of her figure looked very athletic. She seemed a bit older than they were, at the beginning of her twenties perhaps.
“Well, I think we can help you”, one of the boys said while alerting his friends on the piece of cardboard. “Here’s two box”.
Hannah was confused. What did the boy mean? When the boys started to pull of her shirt, she understood. The cardboard off course! “No! I’m not selling the clothes that I’m wearing!”, she shouted to them.
“I think you should have said that before we bought them, you know”, the boy answered as they pulled her shirt over her head. Hannah tried to struggle, but the pain from leaning on the wooden fence made her stop immediately. She couldn’t do a thing. When the boys pulled her shirt off her arms, she realized the precarious position she was in. Her boobs were still covered, but only barely. She was showing the guys a lot more then she was used to showing people she didn’t know. But she feared they wouldn’t stop here.
She was right, off course. Soon she felt a hand on her back, fumbling with the clasp. It was clear he didn’t have a lot of experience with bras. Hannah would have thought it funny, had the situation been different. But now she only felt desperation. She prayed for the clasp to hold, for the boys to go away and leave her modesty alone. She prayed for the small layer of fabric shielding her B-cup boobs to stay in place. But then she felt the boy open the clasp, the strain of the straps loosening. The boy let go of her bra and there was nothing she could do to stop it from sliding down her arms. Her boobs were exposed.
All Hannah wanted to do at that moment was cover her boobs. But she couldn’t change the way she was supporting herself, couldn’t lift an arm to save her from those preying eyes. At first the boys were just staring in total silence, watching her boobs hang in front of them. In this position, Hannah looked more well-endowed than she actually was. She could easily pass for a C-cup.
The boys still didn’t do anything. It was as if they had never seen a boob before in their life. Perhaps, Hannah thought, that was the case. But then her thoughts were distracted by the sound of one of the guys voices.
“WOW”!
The other boys also escaped out of their trance. “Those are some nice titties”!
“Should we touch them”?
It was a nightmare for Hannah. She protested as much as she could, but to no avail. First she felt one of the boys cup her left breast and touch her nipple. Then the other boys joined in. She told them to stop, but they just continued. There was nothing she could do. Then something surprising happened. At first, she just felt her nipples stiffen. Then she felt a tingly sensation start between her legs. What was happening? She should just scream at the boys, tell them to stop, but instead she was enjoying it, even getting aroused a little. The idea that three boys could see and touch her boobs should have scared the shit out of her, but under all that embarrassment there was a tiny part of her that liked it. That craved for it.
After a couple of minutes, that felt like an eternity, Hannah finally had the chance to escape her precarious situation. She saw an older woman entering the street. She shouted for help immediately. The boys were startled for a moment, then two of them ran away with her clothes. The third grabbed his wallet, threw a 5-dollar bill before her on the ground and winked as he said: “Keep the change, honey”.
Hannah didn’t quite understand what the boy meant. But before she could really think about it, the older woman was coming towards her. She forgot about the boys and tried to get her to help.
“Ma’am, can you help me. I’m stuck and my clothes are stolen. Please!”
“They stole your clothes you say? It seems to me like you sold them”, the woman said, pointing at the cardboard. “If you are one of those impertinent, impudent girls, I shouldn’t help you at all”.
But Hannah kept pleading and after some consideration, the woman called the firefighters for her.
Part 2
Brenda Adams was having the worst time. Although she had wanted to be a journalist for all of her life, this wasn’t what she signed up for. Her dream was some big news station, not local television. And now, because it was the slow news season, her boss had ordered her to go to the firefighters and make a story about them. The firefighters had welcomed her; they could always use good press. In the beginning, Brenda was pretty enthusiastic as well. If there was some big fire, her story might make it to national television. But she couldn’t have foreseen the boredom.
In ten days, not a thing had happened. The only thing the firefighters did, was clean, play cards and make jokes about the way she looked. She hated it. They had asked her multiple times if she wanted to join, that they would love to play strip poker with her. It disgusted her. Brenda’s camera man seemed to like it better. He played and joked with the rest of them.
One of the firefighters walked towards her. It was Ben, the captain. “There is an incident with a girl that’s stuck. Would you guys want to join?”
Crap. Brenda had hoped on a big fire. But even this would be better than a news item without any video. So off they went. After a short ride they arrived at their destination. Everyone exited the car and looked with wonder at the topless girl in the wooden fence.
But then the helpfulness of the firefighters set in and they walked to the girls like the professionals that they were.
Brenda saw a unique opportunity go up in smoke, right before her eyes. She couldn’t let that happen. “Stop!”, she yelled as she ran to the captain. “You guys treated me pretty bad these few days. I can give you some very bad press. But if you give me some minutes with this girl, I could be a bit more positive. Got it?”
The firefighters reluctantly agreed. Brenda walked to the girl. After she made sure that her camera man had a good angle, she started to talk to her.
“Hey miss, would you tell me your name and what happened?”
But Hannah didn’t answer. She realized she was being filmed nude and the last thing she wanted was to give her identity. Rescue was so close, the firefighters were already there. If she kept her mouth shut, they would surely help her and her embarrassment would end. But Brenda shattered those expectations.
“I have a deal with those firefighters. They’re not gonna help you till I say they can. So are you gonna talk to me?”
Hannah didn’t have a choice. She told her the whole story. The fact that she was being filmed nude and that it probably would be broadcast on television almost made her cry. She just wanted it all to be over.
After Hannah had told her story, Brenda asked her next question: “But you’ve got 7 dollars. Does that mean you are also nude on the other side of the fence”?
That was the moment Hannah realized what the boys were planning. It was also the moment she felt someone grab her legs and start to undo her shoes. She was shocked. She knew exactly what would come and didn’t like it one bit.
Hannah tried to kick the boys, but they held her legs. She could do nothing. Her sneakers were taken from her, her socks were taken as well and then she felt a hand fumbling with the button of her jeans. She begged the firefighters to free her, but no one did a thing. Her zipper opened and her jeans was peeled of her legs.
For a few seconds nothing happened. Hannah could almost feel the eyes of the boys on her athletic, panty clad ass. There was a tiny part of her that thought it was over, that they wouldn’t do anything else. But then she yelped in the microphone as she was pinched in her ass. The three boys felt her ass up a bit. After that, she felt a hand go under the waist band of her panties.
Her panties were yanked down and her legs were pulled apart. She felt the summer breeze tickle the inside of her legs, her butt and her pussy. She knew she was giving quite the show. They probably could see pieces of her few boys had ever seen. Perhaps they could even look inside her! She still tried to struggle, but it was in vain.
Then happened what Hannah had feared all along. She felt a finger touch her pussy, as if it was probing it. After a couple of seconds, the finger slipped inside. For an instance she was surprised that the finger could enter so easily, that she was so wet. But then the moving finger was all she could concentrate on. She felt other hands feel her up, more fingers enter, and the first moan came of her lips, right into the microphone.
Brenda couldn’t believe her eyes. This was magnificent! She repositioned the microphone, so it would catch al the noises the girl made. Meanwhile, Hannah had slowly given up on asking for help and was starting to moan louder and louder, clearly enjoying the attention she was given. Brenda was delighted. Everyone would like to see this. This could make her career!
Hannah was really loosing it. She even tried to move her lower body, tried to follow the rhythm of the fingers caressing her. There was a very small part of her that realized that she was filmed while she was moaning, that her boobs were shaking back and forth, and that everyone who would watch the video could see this. But she didn’t care anymore. There was only one thing left that was important to her. Release. She felt it come closer and closer and then the moment was there. She came harder and moaned louder than she ever did before. Her legs were pushed through the hole in the fence and Hannah landed on the ground.
Hannah just kept lying there, legs spread, sailing on the heavenly waves of pleasure. After almost a minute she looked up in the camera. Her shame returned and she covered herself immediately. But it was far too late. She had not a secret left. Hannah looked around her, searching for clothes, but all she could find were her sneakers under the hole. She ‘sold’ the rest to the boys. She tried to put her shoes on, finding her purse in one of them. At least they left her her money.
This was the moment the firefighters finally came in action. They brought her a fire blanket and put it around her. One firefighter even asked if they could bring her home, but Hannah was so embarrassed she just ran away as fast as she could. When she arrived at home, her thoughts were becoming a bit more clear. She felt utterly humiliated but was still very excited. She had never felt like that before and it was all she could think about.
Epilogue
The local news sender refused to publish the footage and showed only a few images in the news. Brenda, only thinking about eternal fame, posted the footage on the internet. Soon, it had thousands and thousands of hits. But it was Hannah who became famous, not Brenda.
The boys had had the time of their life. It was an event they wouldn’t forget.
For the firefighters, it was just another day on the job. Or was it? They too would remember the beautiful sight of the girl being stuck and look back at it with fond memories.
Brenda spent the rest of her days at the local news station, watching other colleagues realize the dream she had too, but never could fulfill.
Hannah tried to remove the footage of the internet, but soon noticed that the internet doesn’t forget. It took her a while to cope with the fact that most people she knew had seen her naked, had even seen her orgasm. But she succeeded, and acted as if it never happened. She never told anyone that she had some copies of the footage herself that she watched occasionally. It was the only way for her to feel like she had then.