I desperately wanted one to settle my nerves, but I shook myhead."Awww, come on girls, you can't leave a man to drink with the flies, canya?"Nin looke... completely baffled and Shane said, "Sorry, I meant drinkalone."Nin laughed and said, "OK, thank you, Mister Shane, I take one please." It's Shane, Nin, none of this Mister stuff please." He handed the beerto Nin and then said to me, "C'mon Jamie, will you join us?"I nodded and leant towards Shane and said, "Yes please, if it'salright." No. There was lots of twine, as it was a common activity for all the people of the clans to rub the flax stalks into fibers and twist them into twine, much more so since the introduction of the kites.John made sure the caravan traded for a good supply of twine, to replace that traded off in Samarkand. Zithrusa wasn't able to find dates or figs, but a certain amount of sesame was obtained, and dried stocks were replaced, legumes and nuts, grains and dried vegetables. The travel garbanzos were. “Ahab,” Karl started, “there are only two kinds of people in the world. The ones who fuck, and the ones who get fucked. I fuck. Leon fucks. You’re a bitch.”Francesco was happy to be left out of that. “So what?” Mouse said like that kind of accusation didn’t bother him at all. “Do you have a problem with that? By the way, I’m vers.”“You’re vers my ass,” Karl said with a snort. “I can tell you’re a cocksucker from a mile away.”Mouse leaned toward Karl. “Again, so what? And you should try putting. No problem.”And with hardly a pause, without apologizing for anything, without even a stutter, Mel went on. “How about doing something tomorrow night? I know a place up in the hills, good steak, though the house band is all country.” Mel let the words fade, waiting for Tracy to pick them up, and to his surprise she did. Tracy smiled, rolled the invitation around in her mind for a second, looked at him sideways and said “Mel, you’re so straight it’s adorable. And I’d love to. Be nice to just.