Oh, how I wished I knew what they were! And yet I felt it best not toask...to give him a few precious moments in contemplation of his newfeminine role... We were both silent, as if a couple of girl friendsseemingly too embarrassed to acknowledge the indiscretion that hadtaken place only minutes before. When he did speak, it was a whispered"thank you" as I placed the new cup of tea before him. The ice havingbeen broken, we reverting to our previous roles. Chatting just as wehad before. I was once. He was either entertaining a lady in some love nest he acquired cheap, or in the process of convincing another to join his sordid escort service, so it was not going to be easy. Phoning was pointless as he had more numbers than fake addresses, so for now, the search was on.Into the third hour of pacing up and down Green Street like a nutter on exercise in the asylum, Dan felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. His gut instinct was never usually wrong and had helped him out of many scrapes. I had been waiting all afternoon to see him. “Do you wanna go inside and watch TV?” I asked. It was getting hot out in the backyard, and I had left my bathing suit at home so we couldn’t go swimming. “Sure,” he said, getting up and putting his shirt back on as I did the same. We were just coming inside when we heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway and locking. Soon enough his dad opened the door and stepped inside. “Hey Riley. Hey Matthew,” he said. What was that look he gave me?. I’d never seen her wear glasses before. She sat down on the bed next to me and looked down on me with an enamored smile.‘Hi there, dear June, how are you feeling.’ Her fingertip softly ran over my cheek. I moved away from her.‘Don’t touch me.’ I said.‘Don’t be scared, sweet baby girl of mine.’‘I’m not your baby girl.’‘Oh, but you’re wrong sweetheart. You are our baby girl and mommy and daddy love you very much, you have to know that. I know it’s been hard on you these last few months, but.