"What time did you get home last night?" asked Mr. Dutt. Vickram glanced at Sonia next to him: both were now sitting up on the couch, legs folded, wa...ching the show with great pleasure. Vick leaned towards his sister and whispered as quietly as he could, "I hope she gets it." Sonia began snickering into her hands. "I asked you a question," stated Mr. Dutt. "What time did you get home?" "12:00," answered Lara. "Liar!" barked Rishik. "You didn't come home till past four. You're lying right. They had a bunch of eyes. And they weren’t even humanoid eyes. They were almost geodesic, with shining, compounded facets. Flies eyes. And you’d think all of this would make it hard for me to read the emotion in their bodies. But ... it was all too easy to see the deep, abiding agony in those glittering, gemstone eyes. Each squid had been pinned to the air by immobile shards of psychic energy. Each shard of psychic energy branched outwards in fractal patterns, ending in thousands, millions of. "When we got to the living room, we saw Sue serving everyone in turn an appetizer. As she stepped between every other person on the sofas, she bent with straight legs so her pleated skirt climbed slowly up, up past her toned thighs, across her bare ass cheeks, up past the small indent for her ass hole. And there it was! My wife's denuded bearded clam was completely, brightly, shamelessly, lustily displayed to the other half of the room. Most of the party had moved to or behind the opposing sofa. On the day of the equinox all electrical power in Upper Danubia was shut off, with the sole exception of emergency services in hospitals. All battery-operated devices had to be shut off. All telecommunications had to be shut off. The borders were closed and no motorized vehicles could operate. The country became completely silent for 36 hours, from sun-down on September 21st to sun-up on the 23rd. The Dukovs observed the holiday by dressing in black capes, as did everyone else in the.