’ ‘Uhm, sir … Mr Teufel … what can I do to ….’ ‘To renege on your wager? Why, nothing, Ridkins.’ ‘I– Please– ‘ I didn’t want...to cry, not in front of my four buddies, all watching gape-mouthed. But I NEEDED– ‘But … you can wager against me one more time. Like a,’ — he sneered and nearly spat with this last word — ‘man.’ ‘Please,’ I shook my head. ‘I can’t. You’ll win.’ I’d learned. ‘Well, then, what have you got to sell?’ ‘Sell?’ ‘What would be worth, hmmm … $137,263.48 to me? Hmm?’ ‘I– ‘ I. By the great power of the universe, Naci was in love with me! Still in shock I could only stare at her as I tried to open my mouth to speak.Naci seemed to feel my distress as she came to my side. “Toman, husband? Are you alright? You look almost as if you have seen another ghost.” Then Naci appeared to become scared when I didn’t answer. Shaking me she almost shouted. “Husband! Look at me!”Turning to stare at the frightened look in her eyes I again tried to speak. “I used this cure my mother. Fred does need some help with some of the work he is involved with, so will you like to work with Fred as well?”Both men look at each other and smiled they replied in tandem “Yes please.”Zac then mentioned “I have to go to my office, my temp girl mentioned I have a funny call to attend to. Are you ready Suzanne?” They left to go to Zac’s office.Helena mentioned. “Zac knows about this room and ours, not room 2 and 3. You can move your computer and books to this room but keep everything else as. Sure, over the past five plus years I had learned control and patience, but those were for things I could control; things that were predictable and for which the rewards and consequences were clear. They never included wives, or ex-wives or children or any of those things that were part of a civilized life. Prison was far from civilized. It was dog-eat-dog where the strong survived and the weak succumbed and the result was a culture that worked. Those with a skill or a talent or some degree of.