" I sat on the bed and tucked my skirtdown between my thighs."It's ok," she tried to reassure me. "I just didn't realize that itwould be that obvious,...even if you weren't, well, you know."I just nodded refusing to meet her eyes.She thought for a moment, went to her dresser and dug something out."Here," she tossed me something. "Try this under the pants. It might betight enough so you don't show that big bulge if your skirt flies up."I looked at what I had caught and it was a black thong. The. Shetook it back and gave him only the amount she estimated he needed fortoday's purchases. This, of course, would keep him from skimming thegrocery money in order to save enough to fund an escape. When hereturned from the grocery store, he immediately changed back into hisuniform, not wanting to risk a repeat of yesterday's experience.When Mandy returned, she had a couple of packages. Don now looked atthis as a bad sign. Through the rest of the evening, Don managed toavoid all but one entry. The smile disappeared."We can't," he croaked."I NEED you, Phillip. Pleeease," she begged.He looked at the thing in her hand. "Where's the rubber?" he asked."It ISN'T a rubber. It's something else," she whined."Then we can't," he said firmly. He couldn't believe he was saying that, but he felt stronger than he had in a long time.Amy reached and pulled his face to hers. She licked her juice off his lips and kissed him. "I love you more than anything, and I know you think you're doing what I want. Still, it took me by surprise when the man remained standoffish towards me. He barely acknowledged my attempts to strike up a conversation with him, and when I pressed him on the question of whether he’d seen any strangers about, wandering the plateau, he told me that Chief Mondo would answer my questions if he deemed to grant me an audience.I was actually pissed about it, but I tried not to let it show. I wanted intelligence before I headed off across the plateau with my group and speaking to.