Dust hung in the air choking everyone and everything. The only sign of water was the tear tracks on the children’s faces, and yet he still had hope....Though the dusty haze he watched as an old man approached him, walking very slowly. ‘The fever… our children are dying,’ Inua, the elder, spoke between his deep breaths. Ebbe hung his head. ‘I know.’ ‘But your daughter, she dies too, yet you stand here doing nothing. You’ll find magic in the distant plain?’ Inua asked, pointing toward the last. I walkeddown the short hallway from the garage and hung my purse and coat in thecloset, then crossed the dining room into the family room. There he was,sitting in "his" chair, a beer in one hand and a freshly rolled joint inthe other."So glad to see you are so worried about why I am so late, not to mentiondinner not being ready," I said, teasing him with a phony look ofbitchiness, "Give me that joint, I need it worse than you do right now." Sweetheart! Something wrong? What did the Doctor say?". Swallowing hard, I whispered, “Were you wearing panties the night we met?”Nuzzling my ear, her breath was warm and moist, as she said, “No, I wasn't."Hearing me moan, she giggled and asked, “Do…do you want to hear the rest?”“Fuck, yeah.”“We got naked and into his bed; made out some more. He had me suck his dick and then he put on a condom and we fucked.” She half-heartedly shrugged.A little startled by her nonchalant attitude about losing her virginity, I asked, “What? You didn’t like it?”She. He flexed his andro-defined muscles, displayed some of his flamboyant tattoos, smiled at his mini-skirted girlfriends in the stands, pushed at his colorful wristbands, tightened his fancy batting gloves, shook down the pants that hung over his shoe tops, nubbed one back to the pitcher and trotted along the base line, tossing his bat in the general direction of the bat boy, and then meandering over toward the dugout and doffing his helmet as the throw arched to first and the umpire languidly.