‘When are we going to play Mommies and Daddies again?’ I whispered.She looked up from her homework book, ‘Shhh…after dinner, Mom’s going to ...he PTA and Dad’s watching football on TV. Now buzz off, shrimp.’I skipped back to my room, unoffended by her brusqueness; after all, she was almost always rude to me. And we were going to get to play the game…!I bolted my dinner and even helped Mom clear up to speed her departure to the PTA. Even so, it felt like a lifetime before I was tapping once again. By the age of seventeen, we knew loads. I had purchased a book: The A-Z of Sex. It told us everything.We married a year later. How young eighteen seems today. How grown up we felt at the time. Back then it was what young working-class couples did. The majority of our friends were married by twenty, had jobs and homes, some had cars too. Strange as it may seem now, no one I knew had a telephone — landline that is. Mobiles were just an impossible fantasy back then. If you wanted to meet friends,. It was a large two story home. The fare was nearly 23 bucks. She threw a fifty over the seat and got out not saying anything. Max shoved the bill in his pocket and backed down the driveway. He never expected the large tip, yet he offered her no change. Two nights later the dispatcher blared on the radio. ?You got a special Max, be on time.?The address was the same alley he’d picked up the classy blonde before. He was there the same time as last. Then that same dark unmarked. He could really hurt me. The scene of Veronica Franco pinned to the bed with the Prince on top of her flashes before me. Who am I? I'm Veronica Franco. The lineage swims in my blood. I have known this before I could remember. The fear quickly vanishes and I remember the card that I hold. My attention connects with him and I feel the darker energy muffled with the soft tiredness. Perhaps it’s all my projection. He is beautiful in that moment. What does he want? Our conversation swings from his.