The doorknob jiggled then the door opened and Tyler shuffled in. "I wasso worried about you," I cried, the morning's anger forgotten. I leapedout of m... chair and hugged him. He stood with his arms rigid at hisside, as if his every muscle lost its elasticity. "Mom and Dad arehere," he mumbled.My father raged for nearly thirty minutes, leaning over his cane as ifhe might gobble Daily up with one vicious bite. Daily cowered behindhis desk sputtering excuses like a tired engine low on gas, ready. Young Michael and I are going to clean up for sure this time.”I wasn’t nearly as confident as she was, but I smiled what I hoped was a confident and even slightly predatory smile. I don’t think it worked, because Alberto Luís’s wife burst out laughing when she saw me.As it turned out, though, Natalia was right. We beat them, barely, 6-4, and it was a struggle the whole way. We shook hands all around, the four of us leaving wet spots on the red clay.“Showers in the pool house and there are. “Sis?” I reached out to hug her, but she shrunk for a second ... probably because I was nude.“Bro ... why are you naked? What’s that ... gun in your hand? Some kind of ray gun? Are you behind these recent events? Are they ... what’s going on?” Brenda started to ask me a dozen questions, so I shot her with the slut ray, followed by Lamar, who viewed me with suspicion up to that point.“Sis, welcome to the brave new world of my making, not Aldous Huxley’s. Nor Shakespeare’s, for that matter. Now,. Veronica quicks ducks into one of the stalls and a few seconds later, she flushes and slips back out. Mandi is sitting atop the sink waiting patiently for her.“Feel better?”Veronica smiles and nods. “Much better.”Veronica slides over to Mandi as the woman’s eyes fix onto her. She feels an attraction to this woman, though she doesn’t know why. Mandi reaches out and places her hands on Veronica’s shoulders, squaring her off. Veronica has to brace her knees from buckling. She tucks her fingers.