Howard blushed furiously at being treated like a child, but he knew that she had the upper hand. He nodded silently in agreement to her conditions. She smiled in victory as she continued, “Don’t forget, I have your full power-of-attorney and I can divorce you like that!” She snapped her fingers to emphasize her point.

“I hope you weren’t thinking of driving off in the Suburban, were you?” Anita asked with a vicious tone in her voice.

“WellÖ,uh,” Howard temporized. He had been thinking exactly that. The only thing he hadn’t figured out was how he was going to drive the van with such short legs. He was sure he could jerry-rig a means of reaching the petals if he had time, but he doubted Anita would wait for him to come up with the solution.

“If you are, forget it! You’re too young to drive, your feet won’t even reach the pedals! You’d be stopped and arrested before you got two miles!”, Anita asserted, “If you go one step towards the Suburban, I’ll call the police!”

“WhÖWhat’s going to happen to my Suburban?”, Howard asked with a quivering chin.

“Your Suburban?”, Anita laughed, “You don’t own a Suburban! Don’t you remember signing over all your assets to me? I own everything, including the Suburban! It’s mine now! I’m going to sell the compact and use the Suburban for running around. It’s much more practical for carting a child around in the back seat. There’s room for you and all the groceries in the back without having to squash everything into that itty-bitty trunk my Geo has. I shouldn’t have any problem selling the Geo to some poor college student who needs cheap reliable transportation. I had an ad put into the paper today and have already gotten two offers for it.”

“You can’t take my car!”, Howard said defiantly.

“I don’t have to take it. You signed it over to me with the rest of your property, remember?”, Anita said with a grin.

“But you can’tÖ”, Howard objected.

“I already have!”, Anita rejoined with a grin.

“I take it back! I never meant for you to do this! One call to my attorney and he’ll have the papers withdrawn!”, Howard shouted.

Anita smiled grimly and said, “I’ll bet you didn’t notice there was clause in the power-of-attorney that granted me guardianship over you if for some reason you became incapable of handling your affairs, did you, Howard? Were you aware that the full power-of-attorney you granted me was irrevocable? I have every right under the law to make all the decisions for you and you can’t do a thing about it. As far as the law is concerned, you’re my dependant ward. In other words, Sweetiepie, as far as the government s concerned, you’re my baby! Besides, since you signed over all your money and property to me, you no longer have any money to hire an attorney! Even if you could find an attorney that was foolish enough to take the case for a percentage of the settlement, do you really think you could win the case? What do you think would happen if you went into a court looking like a toddler and wearing training pants? Do you honestly think a court would find you competent to allow you to manage your affairs? Think, Howard! If you go to court your involvement with the polluters will come out! The next court you’d find yourself in would be a criminal court!”

Anita shook her head and said, “No, Sweetheart, you’re not going to take me to court. You’re going to stay here and do exactly as I say!”