She said that Gayatri was there in the room. I left her suddenly in shock. I thought she might have left long back. While I took the tea, I went near ...om and whispered, asking if we could have our 1st night.Mom smiled naughtily and said yes. I went towards the balcony. Since we stayed on the 14th floor, the view from the balcony was amazing, especially at night. Mom, too, came with her tea and lit her cigarette.Me – Amma, can we go out for dinner?Mom – Oh, you want to take me out for a date?Me. Would guess the same.The old engine protested the effort it was being forced to make. Except for stops to refuel, the rusty Citation had been traveling non-stop from Mississippi. The driver just pushed that much harder. Time was of the essence. The possibility of being late was not to be considered.The driver of the Citation was unaware of the Jeep Cherokee that followed, just as the driver of the jeep was unaware of the Citation. Both vehicles were from Mississippi, though the jeep had started. I realized with a start that she had turned eighteen two days earlier while I was on the troop ship. When I got back to San Francisco I called Pablo. He was working at the ranch full time and had taken over a lot of responsibility from his dad. I asked after María and he answered in a cheery voice. ‘She’s fine. Mom and dad want her to go to college but she doesn’t seem to want to. Hey, there’s a big party here the last week of the month. We are having a barbeque, there will be a live band, and. Several times, Mum told her to go and put a bra on, even though she was just hanging around indoors - literally hanging around. I am sure it was because it was making Mum feel inadequate. Either that, or she thought it would make Dad too excited.Whatever the reason, young Tanya told me she thought she was growing faster than ever, and on the Saturday night before we went back to school, as soon as Mum and Dad went out and we were naked, she fetched the tape measure as usual and brought it to my.