He had been practicing on fastballs at the batting cages. Yet he strikes out. Now he restrains himself from slamming down his bat. Fred steps in, deci...ing to crowd the plate. A fastball will not intimidate him. Juan, likewise not to be intimidated, sends a letter-high blazer for the inside corner. It tails inside, hitting Fred’s jersey as he turns away from the pitch. The umpire instructs him to take first base on the hit-batsman. Fred hustles to first, even if it looks like slow motion.Ricky,. " Strangely enough, I gathered that,” I said dryly, earning a kick as I took the phone from her.Frank suggested that I took two boats over that day and the others would be done on Saturday morning. In the meantime, if there were more bookings, he'd come over and help out.“Yes, okay boss," I said. "I'll take Annie with me."“Fine, David." Then he chuckled. "Make sure she doesn't leave anything behind this time."I had a sudden idea and asked if we could take one of Annie’s friends with us and. The dome of St Mark's Basilica was bathed in crimson light.Neither did our canal-side apartment atop a faded seventeenth century palazzo disappoint, although one could hardly have described its amenities as twenty-first century. The carpets were threadbare, the curtains were moth-eaten and even the cooking utensils looked as if they should have been in a museum. But Alicea, bless her, was wholly un-phased, pronouncing it all 'simply delightful'. Standing on tip-toes she gave me a slow,. Tom poured each of them a brandy and turned on the TV. They sat beside each other in silence, watching a PBS special featuring a well-known rock star. It kept their minds off the recent events until it was time to retire. He kissed her goodnight and walked slowly to the forward stateroom.Connie sat in the lounge, thinking about her situation, discouraged that she had come so close and yet still couldn't get Tom to commit. She knew better than to invade his stateroom that night. That could ruin.