Not wanting this to descend into an all-out fight, David glanced at Betty, who merely shrugged at the mess he'd unintentionally stepped into. "OK, I k...ow this is going to be a mess," he responded, trying to control the overly enthusiastic kids, "but I think I'll take Alice, Greg and Monique along as the core group, and we'll take Peter, Adam and Nina along as trainees," he said firmly as he pointed out the two boys and lone teenaged girl. "That means you're only there to watch. The three of you. Reality wasthat clothes are expensive for one thing, especially women's clothes.Then there was the fear of discovery. What if a friend or family membercame to visit and found my alternate wardrobe? What if I had an accidentand got found in a dress by a neighbor? I would be mortified. I wouldsuddenly be consumed by these fears and would grab the few things I hadcollected and go bury them in the dumpster outside when I thought nobodywould see me.I ran that cycle for nearly five years. Then one. She handed me a drink and sat down beside me on the couch. She brought her legs up and folded them beside her. The soles of her feet were dark from picking up the floor dust. I thought it was sexy. “I hope the place doesn’t look too unkempt. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to clean. Maybe I should hire a cleaning service to tidy up…. You know…. Every couple of weeks or so.” I nodded my head and smiled. She asked if I was stilled training in jujitsu. I explained how I earned my black. One photographer had filled a wall with pictures she'd taken of woodland scenes. She was an amazingly talented wildlife photographer who caught a variety of seldom-seen animals in their natural settings. Even I, who spent as much time in the woods as anybody, hadn't seen nearly as many as this woman had. As I examined the photographs, I realized with a shock that they were taken in the parts of the woods that I knew best, the parts where I thought that nobody had gone into but me. The capper.