Sometimes she would come out with the strangest things; there was this lady who would appear and talk to her, but no one else had seen her. Tristain w...s convinced she was real.When it had first happened, Tristain had been about two and a half years old. Up until that time her mind had been almost blank, other than the occasional jumbled thought. Aesia was getting worried. Sicceian children start developing their telepathic capabilities as they start to talk, from around one year old. Tristain. A. in two.Jack was selected for and completed OCS and eighteen months later was promoted to 1st lieutenant. I now had my Masters.When Jack was home on leave I’d visit with him. All he could talk about was the Army and how successful he was. He never even once considered or acknowledged my academic success. With Judith standing at his side, I hated him even more.After his leave was over Jack was deployed to Germany for advanced training. It was a one year tour and I know he could have taken. I felt that sudden urge again now.Jenny liked the idea too so we bundled up for the cold and headed outside. Walking arm in arm along the sleeping streets at 2 in the morning, we expected to see no one. Only the long intermittent pulses of a foghorn punctuated the silence as we made our way through a ghost town of dimly lit store fronts, empty streets, and a lone blinking stoplight. It somehow really struck me that this was such a nothing little beach town, that's all it was."So how did you end. .. you seem sure those were Somalians.” I asked, wondering how he knew.He nodded. “The pin on the white suit’s lapel was the Somalian flag, but that doesn’t mean much. Not proof, certainly, but interesting. I know that there are half a dozen very wealthy warlords who are directing the majority of the pirate activity. It wasn’t always like that but the strong have swallowed the weak and become stronger. They even have their own lobbyists, of a sort. That man, the leader, he looks like the ones.