Then the last bell rang and that was school over for 11 days, l passed Lyn in the corridor she gave me a wicked grin and whispered “what a night” ...hich started us both laughing, even though l was due to meet Julia l was so tempted to ask Lyn for a rematch that afternoon but before l could she said she was leaving straight away to visit her parents, but was looking forward to our picnic.Julia was parked at the usual spot, l got into the car and asked where were we going she winked and replied. My plans for meeting Sheila went down in flames. First, she would not react to my critique. I first deconstructed Elspeth, after Waiting for Godot. Since that night, I practiced the technique continuously, often with devastating effect. Sheila was the first subject to shrug it off. When her turn came, Sheila put me in my place with five short sentences, using single syllable words. Damn, she was good. Fortunately, I had family history on my side. In Newark, that meant paella.Dinner at Casa de. "You want my advice? That's hard to believe but Iguess you can stay. Just close that door. I really don't want to hearMom's shit."I locked the door and watched as my sister light up another stinkyherbal cigarette.She asked, "What's up?"My sister had changed a lot in the past year. Even more than she didwhen she first discovered boys. When she left home she was a formercheerleader who made the honor roll every semester. She came home achain smoker that wore lots of black clothing and too. The stock market still kept me amused. A strange breed of man who would stand in the middle of a room and wave his arms around while shouting a lot wearing the most ridiculous looking braces that clearly weren’t there to hold his pants up. The internet and a brokerage firm proved an interesting buffer between me and them and I was sure comfortable with that little fact. I now lived just shy of three hours drive from Las Vegas and knew some very discreet ladies I could call on while I was there.