Little white girl like you ... hundred bucks a night, easy.”“I don’t wanna catch something...”“I makes’em wear a rubber. Keeps Listerine i... mah purse.”“What if you get caught?”“Cops doan’ look ... Ever’ now an’ then, I does de manager of the truck stop. Night shift guy. He tells the cops ain’t nuthin’ goin’ on...”A week later money had been gone for a day. I skipped a meal or two, rent for the room was due ... I went with Lakisha to learn the ropes. First time we walked down the row of big. .. are you saying that's a person? Jesus Joseph andMary? That can't be a person, too small," Susan asked feeling herstomach twist and the panic rising higher as she added, "Please, please,please God, tell me it's not a child. That's impossible, just tell meit's not a child." Susan, I can't tell you the age, but I've confirmed that it's a person.A very small person. Definitely small enough to be a child. SAL'ssensors are registering 92 degrees - external, heart rate and carbondioxide. I shook my head slowly. If I had see this planet in a video game (cough, cough, No Man’s Sky), it’d have looked ugly. Because humans had never seen a natural world with natural colors produced under an alien star.Seeing it in this context, with these eyes?It was alien.It was lovely.It was part of this immense universe and I felt positively thrilled to the bone. My mind reached desperately for some way to hang this feeling on something more than just gaping awe. But then the moment passed, the. And then she was was done. It felt like she'd consumed gallons. All that was left of the puddle was a damp streak that rapidly dried and disappeared with the air conditioning. Her mouth tasted like piss and dust, and pine sol cleanser. She felt like vomiting, but the idea of making another mess to clean up was intolerable. She forced her stomach to settle, grabbed the message tube again, and resumed her former pose. Her body burned with shame, her stomach was swollen and distended (she.