" Cruisers?" Yes. Dóchas has eight cruisers in its complement of ships. Briana's Clan left with one cruiser yesterday. They are with six of our cruis...rs near Uranus." Is that very far from here?" said Virginia."It is around 2 billion kilometers from us at the moment, or about a third of the way around the sun." That is hard to grasp." We tend to think of distance as time, which we express in terms of light speed. You came from Earth last night, right?" Virginia nodded. "Distance wise your trip. As the glass cleared completely, Corolyn could see that Brianne trulywas in a sorry state. Huge dark rings under her eyes and her skin lookeddrawn and taught. Even the child's eyes appeared vacant and unfocusedand it took several long moments for them focus on Corolyn. When theydid Brianne looked panicked and glanced around as she was able foranyone else nearby. Once they settled again, Corolyn spoke."Hi, honey. You look so tired." Corolyn watched her daughters eyes tearup."Please, let me out. On a cold slab in the morgue looking up at me. I couldn't do it, what would my Maggie say if she could see me? Was I really that desperate? I fumbled for a generous tip and bolted from the room, leaving the confused, but considerably richer, student in my wake. I've not been back to "Exotic Delights" since.Where does all this leave me on this particular Thursday, one month after Valentine's Day: daydreaming about the stockings on sexy women that surround me. It is hell, I am in the darkest. As if I don't have enough attitude to deal with." You said Mike wasn't here though, Sal." Oh, ha ha. At work, I mean."Sally had trained as a nurse before meeting Mike, and if the stories she told me were true, then she was the one behaving scandalously back then. Not that I was ever going to tell Mum that. For the last few years Sally had worked at a sex health clinic. That was pretty cool too, but you can just imagine how Mum took it. "How's that going, anyway?" It's getting tougher. It's hard.