She heard them go ... actually ... she heard them stop ... and smelled their going.Old clothes stolen or looted but unwashed. In years to come they wo...ld learn to keep clean or the smell would stand them caught. Not the clean of soap ... the clean of water and herbs ... to blend in the forest and not stand out.The path forked, she took the left. A hundred yards it forked again ... right ... then right and left. To forget meant slow agony and death in the pits hidden on the path.A flicker of. Whitney had jumped up on his shoulders and as tall as she was, her feet didn't touch the water unless Lionel went out deep enough that everybody else had to swim. Instead they came charging straight at Sam and me. Whitney had to lean over so far that she was off-balance and Sam pulled until she'd fallen in the water. "Woohoo! We're a team!" I yelled. That was a mistake. Carl and Brenda, Doug and Rachel, Jackson and Sugar all closed in on us at once and not only was Sam pulled into the water,. " I said. Nancy sat there explaining what had happened and told Nina to come up to Ms. Daniels classroom.Nina arrived a few minutes later. "Why are you guys up here all alone? What were you two doing?" Nina insisted that we were fooling around with each other in the empty room. "Nothing, sitting here waiting for Ms. Bitch to get back here." I said. "Wow, you're really frustrated about this huh?" Nina asked. "Yes I am, and there's nothing we can do about it." I answered annoyed. "I know what you. Alicia told me she could no longer accept whatever it was we seemed to have. To her it was just 'typing words and masturbating to it.' She insisted that I'd give her my true identity; it wouldn't affect her opinion at all, she promised. She even assured me she would get on a plane and come over to me 'to be your wife, your slave girl, your whore. To care for you and to pleasure you. I am also an excellent cook, you know?'I stalled, desperately clinging to the virtual straws that remained.Then.