Now he was retired and lived a quiet life in a mansion he had built in the hills outside the city.Mariam was next in line to inherit the business, but...she was known to be a bit of a party girl, so her parents had forced her to get a job in the company, to work her way up from the bottom. At twenty-five years old she didn't seem to have many practical skills and would often spend her shifts scrolling through her phone, unless someone directly asked her for assistance."Okay, but you need to do. "Well, I was a little amped up at the time. But I didn't do it just for drama's sake. It got the point across, and even with the challenge of doing it in front of her father, that was still the easy part." And the hard part?"I set my jaw and gave Bert a serious look. "Following through. Recognizing that my life isn't just about my life anymore. Frankly, it never was. Like you said, there are people who have a vested interest in my continued survival, people who depend on me having a role in. She’d met Jim when he was one of her mother’s much younger lovers. He was attracted to her and joined the collection of men who got naked and close-up with her. He was a great fuck but they connected on many other levels and eventually married. She had never had a child even though being quite haphazard about her birth control.The commune that they currently lived in had ten men and only three women. Besides herself, there was Ginny, who was married but no children, and Tricia who was single. We get in the back and take off. We are driving, he's pointing out some of the sites. I happen to notice a joint on the little shelf in front of the speedometer. I asked, is that what I think it is? He says yes mama, we don't go anywhere with out it. And offers to spark it up. We're on vacation, why not. Its getting past around. We are getting further out of town. He tells us don't worry I promise its safe. Soon we are way up on top of this mountain and can just about see the whole island. We.