. cakes... pies... fresh bread! It wasn't difficult to spot the small bakery in the strip mall we were passing. Like moths to a flame we were drawn ...o the store. Standing outside we drooled while looking in the large display window at all the mouth watering goodies. It was then I realized what the line from the poem The Night Before Christmas meant when it says 'visions of sugar plumbs danced in their heads'. When I saw my drooling sisters my heart fell. Without any money there was no way. The silhouettes of their running bodies in the dusk often evoked a sense of heroicism in me, that sense of golden masculinity, strong, powerful, ready to conquer the world, which I myself lack. At the age of fifteen, I was thin and had a rather pale, melancholic complexion. My natural air of melancholy was often mistaken for unhappiness caused by some trouble, hence my fellow students always tried to cheer me up in vain. I knew exactly the cause of this melancholy: I was in love, not with a. And, as far as I know, this company has no mandate for the maintenance and preservation of medieval ecclesiastical buildings... And it's a good job I hadn't been drinking before I launched into that sentence. " OK, Chris. I'll play around with it, and see what I can come up with." She smiled, maybe a bit more warmly than someone being polite to their boss should."OK. And I'll warn Piers McBaine that we're doing so. And, as I say, no rush, you've got more important things to do."I looked at my. ” she whispered. “Why?” “I don’t know how.” The captain laughed loudly, “Is that the only reason? I can teach you.” He set her down and walked her to his cabin. It was lush and beautiful a far cry from where she’d been staying. It was very similar to what she was used to at home and probably what it would have been like if she had made it to her husband. “Now my dear before I kiss you again, you must change. You have been in that garment for three weeks now and well, I’m sorry to say this.