In fact, my father got death threats for loving a Christian, though really, neither of them was at all religious. And then my mum got pregnant with me... So they left Cairo, ran away. I was born in Syria, in a little place called As Suwar."Somehow, I don't know how, they managed to get to Australia. We arrived when I was about as old as Maria is now. They fell in love with Australia — nearly as much as they loved each other. They stopped teaching me Arabic, and I learnt English instead. Dad set. Ginny had grown up her entire life surrounded by farms, she lived on a farm, all her friends lived on farms, she was home schooled on a farm…it wasnt much of a life, but she didnt know much better. It was kind of the normal around her, she didnt think anything of it. She spent most of her day helping her parents around the house, it was just her mom and dad, and her older brother Jason. Ginny had just turned eighteen, and like most of the girls around her age she was starting to feel more like. My senses were on high alert listening for even the smallest sound. Each building I pasted between brought renewed butterflies to my stomach. I was almost to the parking lot when my ears picked up the muffled sounds of two men having a quite conversation. The slight night breeze brought with it a faint smell of cigarettes. Cautiously I tried to peer around the corner without exposing myself. The stiff harness made it impossible to simply turn my head and peek around the side of the building.. ... Jamie stood, looking at herself in the mirror. Joe had left for work and she had the day off. Her mind kept turning to last night. Joe had made love to her so softly, so sweetly. Again. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy that. Lord knows she did. Joe knew how to do everything just perfect. But Jamie also knew that Joe wanted her to be more aggressive. Less timid. As she looked at herself, Jamie tried to open her mind up, see possibilities. What she saw was a pretty, attractive woman. Long.