“Tom?”“Leica? What’s wrong?”“I called Raymond.”“Who?”“One of the guys from last night. Anyway, we made a date to meet at the cafe ...ear the university at three.”“Okay, so what’s the problem?”“He’s expecting Leica, I mean me, the way he met me, the way I was last night, you know, dressed and all.”“Oh, that’s right. Well, it looks like you’re going to get even more practice going out dressed.”“No, I can’t! This is where I live, where I hang out. And in the daytime! I just can’t do it. It’s too. After dinner there was a knock on the front door. Mom answered it and brought Samantha’s mother into the kitchen where we were doing the dishes. She had packed Samantha a suitcase and had brought over a bunch of clothes on hangers. She apologized and said that Samantha could stay with me as long as she wanted too.She had confronted her two sons and they had admitted that they had been fucking Samantha. However they said that she had asked for it and that she had never said no to them in the. “Sure?”Antoine nodded to his right. On the right side of the ship, “starboard,” Amélie knew that much, Captain Beauchamp was surveying the horizon. He turned to the two of them and frowned. Amélie took the hint and stepped back.“Tonight, Antoine.”“Tonight, Amélie.”She walked away, giving her hips a little shimmy as she did so. This was playing with fire, she knew that, but she couldn’t stop herself. She wasn’t really Capitaine Amélie, that was a joke. She was something between Ship’s Mascot. .. whatelse? Moving his left hand forward he rubbed it up and down on the right leg,the leg that looked blue under its fishnet hose felt the sensation ofhis slim robin's egg hued hand with its long black nails rub up anddown on the leg.Someone to his left cleared their throat, a bemused, because he didn'tknow what emotion was proper at the moment, Richard looked to the sourceof the sound. It was the East India hair stylist he had been patronizingand who's name he could never quite remember.