Trading Post

Only for kids and they do it in their neighborhoods.  I will enjoy the 50% discount on candy on Monday. 

Thanks to @Scarth for donating $10 to kick off the November campaign.

Big couple chapters for Lucille and Leo. Leo naturally has fully accepted Lucille as his sister, putting her comfort ahead of his own reputation. But I really locked in on this passage: Instead of resenting her family for treating her as a girl, Lucille now resents her own body for giving her away as anything else. She's also coming to embrace her new station and gender.

I think they probably do too! Thank you very much for reading. :]   Happy Halloweeeeeeen! 👻 We're back today with Chapters 13 and 14. The rest of the story will go on for a few more days yet. Posting a Halloween story in November, I know, it's just sad. I'm like those episodes of Treehouse of Horror that air in November.      “Wow, you guys really went all out, huh…”   Alma stood at the entrance of the playroom in awe for a moment. There was a table at the center of the room and the table was fully decorated and had tea, sweets and everything else they needed all set up. She had to admit, she wasn’t much for tea parties, but this was a heck of a tea party.   “Of course we did! We had to, for you!” Mint said as she continued guiding Alma into the room, eventually seating her at the head of the table. “Here you go! It’s the seat for the guest of honor!”   “I’m not sure why you guys are going to this much trouble for me on a random Wednesday in October, but I guess I’m flattered?” Alma said as she sat at the chair. She blinked as Mint produced a green length of ribbon and started to tie it around her wrist, securing it to the chair. “Uh. Hey. Whaaaat’s goin’ on with that?”   “It’s your party, silly!” Licorice said, now doing the same thing on her other arm. Alma looked around and Choco and Lemon were also approaching with ribbons of their own. “You’re not gonna lift a single finger, okay?”   “Yeah - we can serve you the tea and sweets, we don’t mind!” Choco added as she tied a bow binding Alma’s leg to the chair. Lemon was doing similarly on the other side.   “We’re gonna wait on you hand and foot, like you’re a princess!” Mint said with a big grin. Alma fidgeted a bit, tugging her arms and legs against the bindings, but, she didn’t try too hard to escape. She just blushed at how much attention they were showering her with.   “Fine, geez, if you guys really want to that much, I guess I can’t stop you,” she said. She was embarrassed by the attention, but she also couldn’t hide the little smile on her face.   After that, Alma let herself just enjoy being pampered for the next few minutes, letting the girls pour her tea and feed her sweets. It was just stuff they’d gotten from the kitchen. Cookies, candies and the like. One had the feeling they would’ve needed to get Ida more involved to get bonafide homemade tea party sweets made, but, the thought was there and that was enough for Alma.   Off in one corner, one ghost was watching the party and decidedly not joining in. Strawberry just scowled at the other ghosts, particularly Licorice and Mint.   “Made me chase you and fight you just to get my dolly back…” She growled, that dark pink aura still lightly simmering around her. “I’ll fix you two eventually. Just you wait. Nobody messes with my dolly.” In between her whispered threats, she was fastidiously and intensely checking over her doll to clean up the marks it had gotten while they’d been scuffling over it and make sure the other girls hadn’t damaged it at all. When she was satisfied that her doll was still in decent condition, she did the same thing to Zoe.   “Nobody messed with you while I was gone, right? They didn’t feed you anything mean or nasty, did they?” Zoe had had a year to get used to this kind of treatment, this kind of overbearing concern that felt more like the kind of thing you gave to a toy than a person.   “N-no. It was just the same stuff you were feeding Charlie. Like I said, Ida came in and fixed it, then she brought me right here,” Zoe explained. Strawberry let out a breath through her nose. Then she stopped fretting over Zoe. The pink aura around her started to die down as she calmed down.   “Good. Good.” She petted Zoe on the head. “I’d never let them hurt you, dolly,” she said. Zoe managed a small smile and nodded. But, pretty quickly, she was distracted by the tea party.   “So, Alma’s been fed, huh?” Strawberry looked over too and smirked, her calm, controlled demeanor slowly coming back.   “Yes. It’s almost done for witchy girl now,” she said. “When they’re done showing off like this, she’ll go down for a nap and that’ll be it.” Strawberry half-turned her head towards Zoe. “Are you looking forward to having other people around again?” She asked. Zoe hesitated, looking away. Her hand came up to the back of her neck.   “Is it. Is it totally necessary to turn both Alma and Charlie into dolls?” She asked. “Can’t we just leave them like this? As long as Alma’s hypnotized, she’s not really a threat.” She pointed out. “And Charlie, she’s probably gonna mostly do whatever you want anyway, right? She seems pretty easily persuadable…” Strawberry’s eyes were still covered by her bangs, but Zoe could still feel her eyes on her. It made her start fidgeting where she stood. Strawberry eventually giggled into her hand.   “There’s no need to be jealous,” she said. “I’m not like them. Their favorite toy is always the newest one to walk through the door, right?” She placed a hand under Zoe’s chin. “But it doesn’t matter who comes and goes, you’ll always be my favorite dolly.”   That wasn’t really the reaction Zoe had been hoping for, and wasn’t really her motivation for saying what she’d said, but. She still felt a little flutter in her chest just the same and still smiled and nodded, just the same.   “Okay.”   “Uhm,” Alma said in the middle of Choco, appropriately, feeding her a piece of chocolate. “H-hold on for just a second, guys,” she said, trying to stand up, but all she could do was wiggle her feet. When she’d agreed to be waited on like this, one thing hadn’t occurred to her. Before she could figure out how to do anything about it, she winced and the demand her body was making just fulfilled itself, a hissing noise making it known between her legs. The ghosts looked confused.   “Are you wetting?” Licorice asked. She ducked down under the table to check, then popped back up. “Yeah, you are. Well, what’s the big deal with that?”   “Well - I dunno!” Alma squeaked out, fidgeting in the chair as her diaper grew wetter and wetter. “I didn’t wanna just. Do it in front of you guys while I can’t move! Can’t I at least go walk into a corner or something?”   “Oh.” Choco tapped a finger to her cheek. “Maybe we should’ve thought of something like that. But it’s too late now, isn’t it?” She asked. Indeed, in the time it took them to talk about this, Alma’s accident was drawing to a close, the front of her diaper now quite soaked.   “Mmph. Can I at least go get changed?” She asked. Sitting in this chair, she could feel the wetness squishing against her pretty heavily. A small part of her didn’t mind the…warmth….but she really didn’t wanna sit like this for that long.   “Yeah, yeah, sure!” Mint said. “We’ll change you right after the tea party is done.”   “But uhm, in the meantime, a princess doesn’t have to worry about her diapers, does she? She just lets others handle that,” Choco said and went back to feeding sweets to Alma, who let out a sigh and went along with it.   “I guess so,” she muttered as she chewed. She fidgeted in her seat and let out a sigh. Since she was just sitting here anyway, she just kind of let her body release a little more. She felt the wetness spreading and her diaper getting a little more saturated. She knew she wasn’t potty trained, but she usually at least tried to like, find some measure of privacy when she knew an accident was coming. But maybe this time, she would just relax.   And maybe it was more than just a small part of her that liked the warmth. Maybe.   “That’s it, isn’t that nicer?” Choco asked with a giggle. “This has been so much fu — oh.”   “Huh? What is it, Choco?” Licorice was in the middle of pouring another cup of tea. She looked at Choco, then looked where she was looking, at the door and let out a single laugh. “Wow. Wouldja look at that.”   It was Charlie. She was strapped into a stroller and from the looks of it, she couldn’t get out on her own, but, there she was. Still bound, clearly, but, no longer trapped in the kitchen where they’d left her.   “How’d she get out of the chair?” Mint asked.   “Who knows. I guess she musta got caught again if she’s in a stroller…” Licorice answered.   “What should we do with her?” Choco asked, sounding a little anxious.   “I’m…not sure.”   On the other end of the room, Strawberry frowned. Zoe just looked confused.   “She was definitely still trapped in the high chair when I left, I thought she’d given up for sure…”   “Ida,” Strawberry said. She bit off the word with distaste. “She helped her.” She gestured towards Charlie. “Go keep an eye on her. Don’t let those four do anything stupid. They’ve underestimated her too many times already.”   “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” Zoe said, taking in and letting out a breath as she walked towards the table.   “Look,” Charlie said to the ghosts. “If this is gonna happen and, at this point, clearly, it is. Then I at least wanna be with Alma when it does. Whether…she remembers me or not.” She let out a breath. “You guys won. Okay? Y’won. Can I at least have that much?”   The four colorful ghost girls shared a look and immediately began giggling to each other.   “Sure!” Licorice said. She and Lemon grabbed the handles of Charlie’s strollers and pushed it up right next to Alma’s seat. “You don’t mind, do you Alma?”   “Nnnno, I guess not,” Alma said. And if she did, what was she gonna do about it? Stand up and walk away? “As long as you accept that you lost and you’re sorry about trying to mess with my friends earlier.” She fidgeted a bit, then settled into her seat. “Then, I guess if you’re getting enrolled one way or the other, we can be friends, too.”   “…heheheh.” Charlie grinned and nodded. “I think that’d be neat, Alma,” she said. “I’d, uh. I’d say we can shake on it, but, uh. Both of our arms seem a little occupied at the moment?” Alma just rolled her eyes.   “Oh, uh, I can help with that, Choco,” Zoe said as she assisted Choco in putting together a plate of sweets for Charlie. Choco smiled and nodded at her in thanks, pouring a couple cups of tea instead. Zoe leaned down, setting the plate down in front of Charlie. The two stared at each other for a moment.   “Hey, Zoe,” Charlie said. Zoe swallowed and looked at the ghosts.   “Hey, Charlie,” she said, then looked away, continuing to busy herself with Charlie and Alma’s plates. “I’m glad you finally came around. It’ll be easier this way.”   “Maybe that’ll make two of us,” Charlie said. Zoe let out a breath. She looked down at Charlie for a few seconds. Then she reached down and grabbed a handful of the front of Charlie’s diaper.   “Guhhh.” Charlie fidgeted as she felt her padding bunch up in the front. “Hello to you too…” She muttered.   “I see Ida changed you. I guess it’s good you’re getting used to that,” Zoe said. That seemed to be her answer in a nutshell. Licorice looked at the two of them. Her eyes narrowed slightly. Then, she glanced over at Alma. She puffed out her cheeks and went about undoing the bindings on Alma’s wrist. The others were focused on feeding Charlie and Alma, so almost nobody noticed. Almost nobody.   Strawberry appeared in front of Licorice and lightly pushed her away from Alma.   “What are you doing?” She asked. Licorice glared at Strawberry.   “Move, ‘Berry,” she grumbled. Strawberry looked back at the table and Alma. She gave a quick gesture of her head to an unoccupied corner of the playroom. Licorice rolled her eyes, but followed Strawberry over there.   “We should get rid of the sweets hunter,” Strawberry said. “Go shove her in a crib. She’s planning something. I can’t figure out what.”   “Oh that’s a surprise, you admitting you don’t know something,” Licorice said sarcastically.   “Licorice,” Strawberry grunted. “She’s smarter than you’ve been giving her credit for all night. Do you really want to throw all of this away at the end because you underestimated her again?” She asked warningly. Licorice shook her head.   “Look! If we put her somewhere else and she slips out again like she’s been doing all night and does whatever stupid thing she’s planning, we won’t even know what it is,” Licorice said. “If she does it right here, at least we know we have Alma’s magic to stop her, right?”   “You don’t know you have the witchy girl’s magic, remember?” Strawberry reminded her. “She’s already outwitted your hypnosis once. If you let her free as a precaution against the sweets hunter, then the hypnosis fails again, we’ll lose.”   “We can just change Alma as much as we want, remember?!” Alma asked. “She’s already in a wet diaper, I’ll just change her right now!” Strawberry let out a long slow huff. “It’s the best option, ‘Berry, admit it!” Strawberry bit her lip, then gave the shortest, curtest gesture of her head she could that vaguely resembled a nod.   “Do it,” she said. Licorice started to float away, Strawberry stopped her with a hand on her collar. “Change her. Then put them both in strollers, take them to the bedroom and put them in cribs. The party’s over.”   “You’re such a buzzkill, ‘Berry,” Licorice grumbled.   “Now, Licorice.” And now it was Licorice’s turn to give an extremely annoyed nod.   “Yeah. Got it.” Strawberry took her hand off of her. Licorice floated back to the table, trying not to look as annoyed as she was. “Y’know what! I changed my mind!” She declared once she was there and went back to untying Alma. Mint, Choco and Lemon all looked confused. “We can’t have the guest of honor just sitting in a wet diaper! Let’s get Alma changed!”   “Oh, uhm, okay,” Choco said. “I’ll grab a diaper,” she said and floated off.   “Pffft. What changed your mind?” Alma asked. “You’re the one who always acts like it’s no big deal using your diapers.”   “Haha, yeah!” Mint laughed. “Licorice would walk around with her diaper full of poop all day if nanny let her get away with it!”   “I can put you back in the chair if you want,” Licorice said flatly, not appreciating how this had somehow become about her potty habits, or like thereof.   “Okaaaay, I’m sorrryyyy,” Alma said, fighting and mostly succeeding at controlling her giggles. Licorice tore her tapes and removed the soaked diaper, Lemon cleaned her up, Choco put a new diaper under her bottom and taped it up. The other ghosts looked at Licorice as Licorice looked at Alma.   “Uhm. How do you feel, Alma?” She asked. Alma took in and then released a very contented breath.   “…good,” she said. “Kinda tired, actually. Are we almost done?” Licorice let out a breath and nodded.   “Uh. Yeah! I think we’re almost done, actually!” She said.   “Cool. I just want a little more tea. Can I hold my teacup myself this time?”   “Yeeeeah, that’s fine,” Licorice said, waving a hand. “We’re almost done, I don’t think we gotta do the pamper princess thing anymore,” she said with a giggle as she grabbed a teacup. “Careful, though, you’re gonna pee yourself against right away if you drink too much! Hehehehe!” She said with a giggle.   “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you would know,” Alma said dryly as she took the cup. She looked at the warm tea, took a smell of it, smiled…   …and immediately turned it over Licorice’s head, dumping the contents right on her.               “AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”   Licorice grabbed at her now tea-soaked head and started floating around in a panicked circle.   “OHHHH, THAT’S SO HOT!”   “Wh-what the heck?!” Mint exclaimed. “Alma, whyBWUH!” Mint sputtered as she was interrupted by a teacup smacking her in the face. Choco and Lemon just stared in apprehension as Alma scowled at them, then stopped and turned to Charlie.   “You good?” Charlie asked, a grin spreading on her face.   “Mmn.” Alma took a few seconds to undo Charlie’s restraints, unbuckling her from the stroller.   Then, her attention was fully back on the four ghosts (because there was only four of them in her line of sight now, any other ghosts present were very much making sure they weren’t in her line of sight right now). She leaped onto the table and sprinted across it, kicking tea and cookies everywhere as she dove at the girls, who were already attempting to run away.   “Ah, wait, Alma, please, I thought we bonded, didn’t w-OOOUUFH!” “Wait, ‘Berry, where are you, ‘Berry, help, AAAAAAAGH!” “You already poured scalding hot tea on me, what more can you AAUUUUUGH MY SPINE!”   Within a minute or two, the four girls (including Lemon, who had just kind of accepted her fate and only suffered a swift kick in the butt as a result) were laying on top of each other in a pile of torn dresses and pain.   “Damn,” Charlie said as she put a hand on Alma’s shoulder. “Think y’got ‘em?”   “Still not done.” Alma cracked her knuckles. “Need to be sure.” She took exactly one step towards them and all of the ghosts wailed and waved their hands.   “We surrender, already!” “You win! You win! We won’t try and baby you anymore!” “Please just stop pummeling us!”   Charlie grabbed Alma’s shoulders again and lightly pulled her back.   “I think they get the message.”   “I hit them all, like once,” Alma huffed. “Quit being so dramatic, you big babies!” She said and threw a cookie at them, which got more sniffling and tears. With nothing else to do and no chance of winning now, the four girls did the only thing they could.   “Why’d you untie her, Licorice?!” “They cheated somehow! You should’ve kept a better watch, Choco!” “I tried my best, you guys always blame me when things go wro-huh-hoooong!”   They started throwing blame at each other.   Zoe watched this whole thing with a hand on her chest, not sure what to do. She didn’t know if she should try to help the ghost girls or what. It was over, right? So she didn’t need to do anything. Interrupting that thought, a hand appeared on her shoulder.   “We should go, now,” Strawberry’s voice whispered in her ear.   “A-are you sure?” Zoe whispered back. “The girls—”   “They made their bed. Come on, before they notice…. … …   Strawberry stopped midsentence for a moment, her hand still on Zoe’s shoulder.   “…us.” Before Zoe could say anything, she vanished. Then, the ghost’s whole body appeared, zipping over to the table and checking it. Now that she’d appeared in full again, Charlie and Alma noticed her.   “Tch. There’s one more,” Alma growled.   “Hold on a sec.” Charlie held up a hand. Strawberry seemingly had no interest in Charlie and Alma at the moment. She was instead checking Alma’s plate. She looked it over and grabbed a half-eaten cookie off of it. She took a sniff of it.   Then she turned to look at Zoe. She zipped back over to her.   “St-Strawberry? What’s wrong?” Zoe asked and Strawberry grabbed both of her arms.   “Let me see your hands,” the pink-haired ghost said coolly. She tugged Zoe’s arms towards her and looked at her hands. Her mouth twitched down into a frown. She reached into Zoe’s pocket next and pulled out a jar of ginger spice. Zoe swallowed and stumbled backwards a couple steps.   “Is that?” Alma’s eyebrows went up.   “Crud,” Charlie said. “Was hopin’ she wouldn’t notice. Alma.” She grabbed Alma’s arm. “Listen to me a for a sec.”   “Uhm. Uhm…” Zoe kept backing up until she was against a wall.   “You did it,” Strawberry said. Her mouth hung open for a second, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The jar of spice fell from her hand and rolled away on the ground. “You knew the Sweets Hunter had the spice on her. So when I was talking to licorice, you grabbed the spice and used it on the witchy girl. That made her stop being hypnotized.” Her voice sounded far away. Like she didn’t fully understand what she was saying, even as she said it. Zoe just shrunk away more and more the longer the explanation went on, but after it was over, she stopped. She made a fist with her hand, took in a couple deep breaths and stood up straight to her full height.   “I did. I did, Strawberry!” She said. “I didn’t want Charlie and Alma to be stuck here against their will, I didn’t want anybody to be brainwashed, I just.” She shook her head. “Enough is enough! It’s not okay to keep people here against their will and. I don’t think you should do it anymore! But if I tell you guys that, you don’t listen, so, I had to make a decision and…!” Her hands were shaking, but she leaned forward and said with her whole chest. “I don’t regret it! I’m glad I stopped you!”   The whole playroom was silent for a moment. Strawberry drifted backwards. Her mouth was hanging wide open. Zoe thought she saw her bangs part for just a second to reveal a pair of big, wide, shaking pink eyes.   But that only lasted a second. Strawberry’s arms went to her side. Her expression became muted again. Then, she let out a single mirthless giggle.   “That’s a cute story. Dolly. But I know the truth,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, but filled with malice. “You’re not a hero. You’re just selfish. You let them go so they wouldn’t hog your spotlight, isn’t that right?” She raised a hand and the air in the playroom started getting a little thicker. A dozen pink ghost hands appeared around Strawberry. Zoe swallowed and closed her eyes, her face one of resignation.   “You just wanna make sure you’re the only doll around to be played with.” She raised her other hand. A dozen more hands appeared and they all scattered in different directions. “I can oblige you, then, dolly. Like I said. You’ll always be my favorite.”   Strawberry clapped her hands together. The dozens of ghost hands all rained down on Zoe at once. She didn’t try to resist them. They grabbed her and laid her on the ground. Half of them were holding diapers that they immediately started layering on Zoe, pushing her legs out further and further with each subsequent layer. One forced a bottle into her mouth. Others started pulling heir hair into childish pigtails, tying ribbons into them, fixing a bonnet onto her. Her clothes were already getting tugged off, a babyish footed and mittened sleeper hanging above her along with several blankets for swaddling.   “You want to be the only dolly for me! That’s fine! Then you can be my baby doll all the time now. You don’t need to be able to make your own little plans, you don’t need to walk or talk or move or even think on your own, dolly! I’ll do all of that for you from now on!” Strawberry said, her voice raising until she started laughing, pointing an accusatory finger at Zoe.   Zoe didn’t resist. She’d known this was coming. She knew Strawberry wouldn’t respond to her rebellion well when she’d decided to do it. It was fine. She’d at least saved Charlie and Alma. She deserved this for helping capture them in the first place, she was pretty sure.   Besides. She was pretty sure this was where she belonged.   So she just kept her eyes closed and let it happen, quietly nursing from the bottle as she was diapered to an absurd extent. But then something made her open her eyes.   “HEY ‘BERRY!”   Strawberry turned around just in time to get smacked upside the head with Charlie’s stun baton. Her scream was cut off by her being too stunned by the blow to make noise. She flew across the room, eventually slamming into a small bookshelf up against a wall.   Where Alma was waiting for her, reaching out, and —   “W-wait…no…!”   Plucking her doll right out of her grasp. Strawberry vainly reached for it. Alma shoved her back down and ran over to Charlie.   “This it?” She asked, tossing Charlie the doll.   “Yeah. Thanks, Alma,” Charlie said as she caught it.   “Uh huh.” Alma blinked her eyes, opening them again, the purple glow of her magic briefly filling them. She picked at the doll’s head for a second, then pulled up one hair. “This one’s the real one.” Charlie grinned.   “Thanks, Alma!” She said. Both of them grabbed the hair and yanked it out of the doll’s head.   The effect was instantaneous. Zoe let out a gasp. A pink aura appeared around her for a second, pulsed a few times and then just…parted, completely leaving her. The ghost hands all immediately got notably weaker and slower. Charlie was on Zoe instantly, knocking the ghost hands away and helping Zoe to her feet. Or at least, she tried, until Zoe fell right back down. Charlie let out a giggle, then started plucking the many layers of diapers off of her waist instead.   Alma came to help too, just. Slower. She shooed off a few of the ghost hands as well. By the time she got there, most of the diapers were already off.   “Thanks, Zoe,” Charlie said as she finally got the girl back on her feet. “You’re a real lifesaver.” Zoe wasn’t sure how to react to that. She sniffled once and rubbed her own face.   “You, uh. You really believed in me, huh?” She asked. “Th-thanks for that, Charlie.” Charlie had a big grin on her face and she lunged forward into a hug, wrapping both arms around Zoe.   “I knew ya had it in ya! That’s my job as a Sweets Hunter!” She boldly declared. “Believing everybody’s got somethin’ great inside ‘em!” And maybe it was the hug or maybe it was just the silly analogy, but something about it made Zoe start laughing. By the time the hug was over, however, Zoe was noticing Alma and that was making her kind of want to hide again. But, she didn’t.   “I - I’m sorry, Alma.” She swallowed. She didn’t turn away, she approached Alma head-on and looked her in the eye. “I’m really sorry about what I did to you. Catching people is one thing, but, letting the ghosts do that to your mind.” She looked down for a moment, but sucked in a breath and kept her chin up. “I understand if you have to do. Whatever you feel you have to do.”   And Alma looked like she really, really wanted to be mad at Zoe. It was true, being hypnotized really had not been a fun time for her. She glowered at the girl, ruminating on all of the thoughts of revenge she’d had since Zoe had turned on her in that stupid little crawlspace passage. Part of her wanted to just rear back and sock her right then and there, but…   “Urrraaaawwwrgh.”   She let out a sad groan instead. She just couldn’t do it. Not after she’d saved them both. She reached up a hand and gave Zoe a very stiff slap on the shoulder, getting an “Oof.” out of the slighter girl.   “We’re cool. Thanks for savin’ our bacon,” she said flatly. Zoe looked like she couldn’t believe it. “I’m not huggin’ you, though!” She said, pointing at Zoe to make sure she kept her distance. “I ain’t a hugger!” And somehow that, too, made Zoe laugh, which just made Alma sigh and roll her eyes.   “So that’s everything, right? We’re good?” Alma asked. “We should probably get out of here.”   “Um.” Charlie tapped Alma on the shoulder a couple times and pointed at the other end of the room. “I’m not so sure on the ‘we’re good’ part.”   “Huh?” Alma turned to look at what she was pointing at. “Ahhhh. Shit.”   Strawberry had gotten her bearings back and was floating up into the air, a dark pink crackling aura formed around her body and slowly spreading outwards.   “You…you two…” The ghost girl hissed out. “I’m very….VERY upset with you…”

I have just read this story up to now, really a great story, even if I needed to skip a few violent paragraphs occasionally.  I nearly did my nappy in with “John” being back, even if that was expected.  I really hope that you are doing ok and managing with what you are dealing with.