Mom-Dad kissi rishtedaar k shaadi k liye haftey bhar se baahar they. main yeh janata tha k main aaj ghar main akela he hu raat k 8-9 bajey tak, so mai... computer par baithey surfing kar raha tha. Tabhi dopahark 12 bajey k kareeb merey mobile ki ghanti baji. Call pick kiya toh meri sabse choti mausi ka call tha. Phone ki aagey ki baatey batane se pehle main meri mausi ka varnan karna chahunga. Woh ek 40 saal ki vidwa hai aur unki ek beti hai. woh bhi mumbai main he rehti hai. unka rang gora hai. Tights! What had convinced me thatthey were the same as stockings?Come to think of it what had even persuaded me that men do wear tights? Ihad never seen any men wearing tights. I did not know any men who woretights and on the basis of a stupid bet I had been persuaded to wear them.Then there had been the most stupid bet of them all that had now led to mehaving false breasts and false nails applied and led to my firstexperience of wearing nail polish and my first make-up lesson (as. Margarita's English was amazingly good by now. And her 18th birthday was on Tuesday.Last Tuesday, unfortunately. I had called her, wished her a happy birthday. I had a whole collection of gift-wrapped presents for her, too. More clothes -- clothing appropriate for wearing in the coming fall months. Beautiful, carefully selected clothing -- a dress, a skirt, a blouse, a scarf, even a winter coat -- all of it gift-wrapped.Winter, I was thinking, might be a bit colder in central New Mexico than. Some sort of natural fissure I thought, not part of the charted mine complex. The crack was so small, it might not be logged into the hunters' computer maps. Did I still have a chance? Could I fit into this?I crawled rapidly for a short while, grateful for the bend towards horizontal. I moved as silently as possible, and then instinct forced me to freeze. My nerves were screaming at me to go on, but the danger of an audio-seeker was just too great. My hunters were very well equipped. I shut.