The Consumer Of Stories’s Reviews > The Undermining of Twyla and Frank > Status Update

“I’ve spent most of my life being useful, and when a person has been useful for as long as I have, they come to believe that useful is all they are. But then you came along and wanted to spend time with me, for my own sake. I know this won’t make a bit of sense to you, but thank you for helping me see that I don’t have to be a chair for all eternity.”

“I, Mercy Elizabeth Birdsall, entrust you, Hartley James Ralston, with my life and all that I have made of it. I give you my happiness and my sorrow, my fortunes and my failures, my wisdom and my foolishness. Do you accept me as I am?” “I cherish all that you are, now and always,” Hart Ralston answered without needing to be prompted, his voice soft and gruff.

Never give a man a choice, her grandma Eloise had advised her a few days before her wedding. Never ask. Always tell him what he’s going to do. If you ask, you give him a choice, and if you give him a choice, he won’t do it.