You’ll be drummed out of the league and . . . ‘ I trailed off. The consequences of not having a thousand dollars that you were supposed to have in...this league could be severe. ‘What do you want me to do?’ Charlie and I were friends for many years. His wife, Susan, was a beautiful school teacher I had dreamed about for the last six years. Charlie was a cutup who always had been popular, even though he obviously had problems with his liquor. ‘You know the team had a kiddy and I keep track of it.’. And it was working, damnit. I had just finished reading a story where the Friedsland sector went up in flames because the Arened Armed Defenders of the Faith, a crackpot religion-based political movement had blamed the destruction of one of their primary strongholds on “the baneful existence of off-world travelers daring to profane the sacred glory we had established.”It sounds funny, but when over a hundred thousand religious fanatics invaded the planet’s largest shipping hub and burned. "Come on, your wife is almost done," Ellie returned and grabbed Evan'shand, leading him to the front of the store.Marie was thrilled as she exited her dressing room wearing a blue polkadotted circle dress. She looked gorgeous! In fact, she looked nearlyidentical to that girl standing over at the entrance."What are the odds that the wheel landed there twice in a row?" Mariethought to herself.As Marie approached, Evan idly stood, swaying in the unfamiliar heelsand playing with his skirt."Oh, that. If you don't accept, thank you for visiting us and go elsewhere.Dick moved the cursor to accept, then waited for the website leading into the room he meant to visit to download. As it had the first several times, the swirling colors lulled him into a comfortable sense of well being mixed with eager anticipation for what was to come.* * * *"Hypnotics are functioning," the tech announced, as a view of Grayson through his own computer monitor came up. "Subliminals up and running. We have.