She nods.“You need my strength?”She nods.“Look at me, June.” She does. “You’re not a slut or a whore or anything like that. What Reyna sai... isn’t true.”“But I moved in with her, a stranger, for sex. Who does that besides a slut?”“It doesn’t matter. Listen to me. Reyna’s not here. She doesn’t matter.” I can see the confusion over her face. She can’t sort that out. Two ideas are still raging in her mind.“You want me in charge?” I say forcefully.She nodds.“Then listen to me.”She nodds.“You are not. He is dressed in Chinese-style pants and jacket, wearing small sunglasses and carrying a wrapped sword. Overhearing their conversation, he smiles slightly.)Enishi: Long?... Long indeed. It's been ten years since I last saw Japan... (A hot summer morning. Kenshin and Yahiko are training outside the dojo.)Kenshin (blocking Yahiko's stroke): Close. Try a little harder.Yahiko: I'm not done yet!(He whacks at Kenshin so furiously that he seems to leave the ground.)Sanosuke (sitting on the porch. Was he breathing heavy when he hung up the phone?”“I don’t think he hung it up, Daddy. I heard a thump, I guess when he dropped the phone and now I hear Grandmother calling him. Should I hang up?”“No, why not stay on the line and make up some story for Mother when she comes to the phone. I’ll call your other grandpa and get him over here.”“I’ll tell Grandmom you will fuck her silly if she comes over here, but she won’t be fully aware of things because I am using the stuff I learned from the. I remembered a pretty brunettewoman with a wide smile and a pleasant demeanor standing at the front of aclassroom that I both did and didn't recognize. An entire school years'worth of daily interaction with classmates. Strangers whose names I knewwithout hesitation. Events that had never taken place which had also been apart of shaping who I was.My heart froze for one moment, a second that stretched into eternity. Amemory, as solid as anything around me. I was standing on a stage at theschool.