I got up the nerve to ask Katherine what her reaction would be if I kissed her. I don’t think she ever really gave me an answer, so I leaned over an... kissed her on the mouth. The kiss was passionate and we did a brief tongue exchange. My thought were that neither one of us wanted the night to end. We talked about what other things we could do the rest of the night. We decided to get a cup of coffee and go watch the planes take of at the airport. I followed Katherine back to her house and we. Now, barely 300 sailed back to Emertland.Tears clouded Jorgarn's vision when he thought of the fallen. Some names came forth with waves of emotion – Usala and Alite, Traymer Ducotte and Bren Seni and Melodart, his mentor, his guide and his friend.He dreaded telling Sir Torbert about the loss of his oldest daughter and heir. He hated to face Gorin when he told him of Melodart's death. He was certain Gorin already knew. Renoit and Melodart were scheduled to return home after a year, to trade. THWACKThree judges started stopwatches.It STUCK! Good God Almighty ... it stuck! and I was off and running to station number one.At station one I carefully loaded, powder in the measure, replace the violin peg stopper.Out loud I said, “POWDER-Patch-BALL ... short starter-patch knife-cut the patch-replace the knife-ram the ball-half cock-open the pan-prime-close the pan.”I looked up the hill. Holy Shit ... a white painted steel buffalo at least a hundred yards up the hill. I threw up the gun to. I needed a new job. I needed new "friends." My 25th birthday was coming up in less than a month and I had absolutely no one to spend it with. Hell, I couldn't even find someone to go watch the Redskins game with me. I asked my roommate but she declined. She never went anywhere. I called Shane, a guy I had previously gone on a date with, but he did not return any of my calls. I decided to ponder my decision while taking a hot shower. As I let the hot water massage my naked body I decided.