“I won’t go back on our deal unless you ask me to sing ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ again.”I glanced at Ryan.“She would totally rock that s...ng,” I said to him.“I thought so,” he said, smiling at me. “Apparently you and I are in the severe minority. Anyway, it was nice to meet you. If you just pass your info off to Stephanie, she’ll get it to me. I wasn’t really worried but ... like you said ... I take my job seriously because I know there are serious people out there that would hurt Liz.”“She. I walked closer to observe her.It was a live woman, her skin painted the gray-brown color of stone, her movements perfectly still except for the rise and fall of her breasts as she breathed. As I admired her, a man approached with a woman behind him.“Excuse me, master,” he said. “It is time to change the decoration.”“I beg your pardon?”“As you ordered, master, we change the woman each hour so that they will be fresh for your enjoyment. Standing so perfectly still tires them, master.”“Of course.. Staking our tent in place was a bit more problematic. The thin layer of dusty soil on the fifteen-by-twenty foot plateau of bedrock was not deep enough to drive a tent peg into the ground. We improvised by filling several plastic bags with dirt and rocks and used them as anchors to keep the shelter in place. The finished product would have been the laugh of the neighborhood if anyone could see it. Our poor tent leaned to one side like a drunken sailor as its top was squashed and misshapen by. A small sign announced HELPYOURSELF.I poured us two cups, looked at George and asked, "Cream and sugar?"A light bulb seemed to go off in her head. "You know, here's somethingI hadn't thought of yet. I don't know what the hell I like any more. Iused to drink coffee black, but now I have a craving for somethingsmoother. I think I'll try it with a splash of..."-----The truly awful things in life rarely occur due to one particularthing going awry. Calamities usually don't happen unless.