" I do have to keep up appearances in front of my girls," she said.Just then an alarm clock went off. One of those old fashioned pieces with the two g...ngs with a clapper between, stuck on top of the analog clock. Several years ago, the alarm clock rule was installed for our neighborhood parties, the afternoon after several partiers had overstayed their welcome at the Harris' Fourth of July barbecue, keeping them up until well after three AM. Whoever threw the party made it known what the cutoff. Get yourselves situated and in camouflage. Sergeant, set it up. Half crescent, nobody's in anybody's line of fire. Be prepared to shift, like I told you, either direction if we need to, but keep to strict for­mation." May I ask what are your plans, Major?" the colonel put in."Wait 'til we're down and set up, Igwanda, tell you then. All right, soldiers, one more time, remember what I told you about not getting too worked up if you lose a weapon. Try not to let it happen, but if it does ignore. Just some dents and a broken windscreen in the shape of your head.’ ‘Oh Christ, I remember now. I was tired, having been working and traveling for thirteen hours without sleep apart from a brief nap on the aircraft and I saw an angel and swerved to avoid her and everything went blank.’ ‘And then I found you and saved you from dying from exposure.’ ‘What?’ ‘Never mind. I’ll make arrangements for your early release from here.’ ‘What.’ ‘Never mind. Just remember the name Nikki West from out west. It's been a hellacious winter. The first snows came before Halloween and seemed to never stop. There was a blizzard that started on December twenty-third and lasted for four days. The inane weatherman on channel eleven kept going on about a white Christmas. I don't know who the fuck really wants a white Christmas besides weathermen. Even my son Steven was sick of the snow. He's five years old and he already has better sense than the morons on TV who play at being meteorologists.If there's.