“Wow!” I laughed. “I got YOU to swear in Russian!”“Calling me Lizard Breath on my birthday is pretty low, even for you!”I held out my arms...and after sticking out her tongue at me, she accepted the hug.“Happy birthday, Liz,” I said quietly.“Thanks, Mike!”“Can anyone get a hug?” Mindy asked with a silly smile.“Sure,” I grinned.We exchanged a nice hug and after she checked to make sure the coast was clear she gave me a soft kiss as well. I hugged her tight and she stepped away. Maggie got up and. ”“Bye,” Sharon said and slipped her phone back into her bag.The ticket office was still open and a man of indistinguishable ethnic origin glumly slid her ticket across the grate without even glancing up from his magazine.Like a hypnotist’s spiral, the rain spun around in loops as it was blown down the road in the direction of the Railway Hotel. She was already soaked so re-entering the tempest was not an issue.With the wind behind her, the trip back to the pub was quicker than the upwind crawl. Janet and I started to make plans for the guys . About an hour later Joshua called said that he had gone to pick up his brother at the airport . So I asked him if he and his brother were available tomorrow late morning after my husband Doug and the k**s went to the Zoo with their school class mates, he had volunteered earlier last month so that I might have a day to myself , the timing could not have been better. Janet told her husband that we were going shopping and she would be home late. He. All they lacked was enough money to drill their wells, and then they could sit back and live off of the oil flow that was sure to be there.One of the problems that they had though, was that they had a limited time before they had to perform on those leases. The clock was running out for them and they could see that this possibly final real opportunity might never pan out for them. It was a nervous group when Ken introduced me to them. They must have expected a potential investor that was much.