The three girls were smiling at me."What is it?" I said."Oh," Kayla said, "we were just talking to the waiter. We told him youthink he's really cute."...You WHAT?" Oh, relax. He thinks you're really pretty as well." I couldn't believewhat she was telling me. Why did the fact he thought I was pretty give mebutterflies?"I can't believe you did that," I said."And," she went on, ignoring me, "we told him if he wanted to come overand drink and hang out with us tonight, he's totally invited."Oh my. Her face had twisted with rage, but she got it back under control.Then she haltingly spoke about the radiation she had slept in after her near-term wounding. She enunciated her visions as best she could, expressing her confusion over their source. And finally, Paige talked about the changes in her body that had happened, assuming that the radiation had changed her as she lay dying. The radiation, or whatever was in it, had even saved her life, causing the bullet wound to close up in her. Bren looked down on him with a distaste that he kept well-hidden while Philip knelt on the deck and prostrated himself in the way that all Anatorayen citizens were expected to before their royalty. If any man had done so to Bren, he would have kicked him in the head."Good morning, Philip. How kind of you to come all this way to see me. Do you bring messages that require my attention? As you can see," She gestured to the empty table between them, "I have both the time and space to tend to. It didn’t occur to me how much my brother’s life had changed, until I met his leading lady. Two nights after I first arrived, James took me to a nice restaurant in downtown Boston and we were joined by a tall, curvy and absolutely gorgeous young Black woman. James smiled at her and introduced her as Valerie Brown, his girlfriend. I stared at her, stunned. She was so beautiful. Kind of reminds me of that Hollywood actress Gabrielle Union. Valerie was absolutely charming. As we sat and had dinner.