She reminded me that I was supposed to protect her, so I might as well start assembling the bodyguards because she was going to the auction. Well, I c...uld see that she was very excited by the thought of this outing, so I didn't have the heart to try to argue her out of going.I was not going to scrimp on Atrina's safety, so I planned to take all 24 of the bodyguards. I had them practice marching while surrounding a palanquin. We rigged a closed palanquin so that Atrina would not have to be. It involves household repairs like changing out a faucet, checking out her air conditioner or trimming her trees, the kind of stuff that I don’t want to do around my own house let alone someone else’s. I usually try to get out of doing it but my wife nags me until I give in. Julie doesn’t even pay me, at least until recently, but my wife makes it up to me by giving me sexual favors in return for helping Julie out. Julie is not an attractive woman but she is not ugly either, she is only. “What?”“We have this conversation all the time.”“So?”“Well, if I haven’t convinced you before, what makes you think this time will be different?”“I just need to hear it,” I say. It’s pathetic.“Of course, you’re beautiful.”“Thanks.” I don’t push him. It’ll just make him mad. I’ve run out his patience. And it’s not him. He says I’m pretty all the time. The problem is me. I know it’s me. The words all bounce off me. Am I beautiful? Beautiful like Reyna? Her dark skin and dark hair. Her thin face. As you may remember from one of my former letters, I have lost a few words about my neighbor's daughters Lucy and Larissa, have I not? Let me briefly remind you of what they are and look like, although I know my descriptions of these two adolescent girls were rather vivid in my earlier scribblings – of Lucy, the elder of both sisters, especially.Larissa, the younger of the two, aged sixteen, shows great talent in luring boys and sometimes even young men into her home; to let them savage her.