You may be surprised just how many friends you have in that town who owe the survival of their community and their good fortune to you Mae, or should ... say St Mae. ‘This meeting is over,’ Mae sighed. * * * Joe was delighted. ‘That’s a surprise because Mae doesn’t like me much. I’ve screwed her a few times when we were drunk and she went bananas afterwards each time saying a girl doesn’t do that to her best pal.’ ‘Your company has a business association with us Joe and although I’m new boy on. Now, she didn't even have that moral position to fall back on.Mick churned her insides in a way no-one had achieved since their tempestuous relationship finished. Certainly not her arsehole of a husband. Why was she drawn to such men, she wondered? Always those with talent, the looks and the charisma. With that recipe, she mused, why wouldn't she feel attracted?Mick had shorn off her years as surely as she'd abandoned her common sense. She'd felt like a teenager, giddy with her first true love. Dave sloughed off his parker, listening to thewindows shake in their frames. It was already dark outside, and it couldn'thave been later than four thirty. It didn't seem natural, even this late inSeptember. None of it seemed natural, now that he thought about it ? theclouds, the storm; the vicious, lancing winds. What was going on?"Coming down like a machine gun now," Dave observed, looking out through thedoor's leadlight paneling, "sounds like its raining bullets." Hailstones thesize of. "Or, I guess I could call you 'Quake', butyour aunt tells me you don't wanna hear that name anymore."I looked at him. "I'm in a lot of trouble, aren't I?"He had his feet propped up on the table, looking very relaxed. "Definetrouble. You blew up several empty cargo crates, your boyfriend droppedabout a half dozen more into the water and probably killed a few fishin the process, what exactly did you do wrong?" Vandalism? Terrorism? Trespassing? C'mon, I had to do something!"He raised an eyebrow..