"It's me."Oh, her voice, sweet and soft and caring.I took a deep breath. Maybe if I just held my breath she'd go away.Just about the time I was beginn...ng to turn blue I heard her ask, "How do you eat an elephant?"Old memories erupted -- a scene from long, long ago, only that time it had been me on the outside of her locked door, her crying in her bedroom. Whoosh! I gasped for air."How do you eat an elephant?" she repeated softly and patiently.Damn! I was overwhelmed by a rush of feelings --. Dycke can be here, but not with us. At least not until you heal. ‘Why?’ Payne asked. ‘Payne, it seems that when people are in the room with Dycke, He finds a way to make them laugh or make them laugh at him. Either way, everyone is laughing, including you and that has to stop for at least the next six to eight weeks.’ Just as Payne was getting ready to argue over the new arrangement, a hospital technician wheeled a chair into the room and said, ‘Ms. Temple, there are some people downstairs that. Just when I was starting to feel giddy again and was giving up any minute, among the interweaving ribbons of white smoke I heard the familiar throaty voice."You must be lonely," the woman concluded and mutely offered me a cigar. Cuba can't go without cigars, I thought and took it clumsily. She lit it for me and in the light of the flame, I could finally scan the contours of her face. She was in her twenties, with a profuse dark hair, waving down her back, pinned with jewels to her temples. Her. As a start, Adriana commanded Lillith to perform an act she had sometimes heard described but couldn`t even imagine actually doing. When she said as much, she gave her captor just the excuse for which she had been waiting.The steel manacles bit into Lillith`s wrists as they were winched up over her head until she was tightly stretched. Then Adriana moved in with the many-tailed leather flogger reserved for the tender flesh of young girls. It wouldn`t scar like a braided whip but, as Adriana.