”“Really? It sure seemed to me like you meant it.” I stopped myself and sighed. “But I’m over that. It’s forgotten.”She thrust the plast...c bottle at me. “Have a drink!”“No thanks.”“What about you, Sammie?” asked Laura. She waved the bottle in the direction of the bed but Sam shook his head.“She’s a bit quiet, this cousin of yours,” said Laura.“Yes, he is!” I said and tried to hide my smile. “Sam is a boy, Laura.”Another opportunity to mess with Laura’s head thrown away. Sometimes I’m too nice. He felt extra naked without it somehow, like the last thing keeping him safe was take away. Then the woman roughly took him by the arm and pushed him onto bed. Hands took his arms and legs, dragging him to the center of the bed and spreading him out. These were not weak women.His hands and feet were put through the loops in the ropes, and the loops tightened. When it was done, he laid there spread-eagled, so wide that he felt all stretched out, pain in his joints and muscles.The women studied. Mother’s never in touch with them any more, so she couldn’t tell them what happened. We could call them, tell them wfre engaged or something, and I’m sure they’d let us stay with them a few weeks until we got ourselves organized. It’s a small town but maybe we could both get jobs.”“Any port in a storm, baby. A few weeks and my old man will cool down and we’ll be able to go back to the ranch.”“I’m never going back there. When I. He thought he could see her salivating. He picked up the microphone hanging from the side of the squad car’s radio. ‘2141, 25 code baker kilo 114’ In that jargon, he checked out for lunch at the Burger King in his district: southwest. He rolled up the window, got out of the car and locked the door. ‘O.K., let’s go!’ he said with forced enthusiasm. Inside he ordered, and asked her what she wanted. ‘Guess a glass of water,’ she said, looking down at her shoes. ‘Sara, I’m buying. What’ll it be?.