Ceraden laughed lightly, and replied immediately, “We Maliri are an old-fashioned lot, and us men are the breadwinners, while the Maliri maidens ten... the home. It’s a rather provincial tradition, especially compared to you Terrans with your gender-blind meritocracy, so please forgive our rather backward ways.”“How interesting, thank you for telling me about your culture,” Rachel replied with an appreciative smile.That was a rehearsed answer, wasn’t it? Alyssa thought to Rachel, sounding. Don’t… I’m not…’ Andrew put his hand on my shoulder to shush my confused ramblings. I closed my eyes and sighed deeply. I wanted him to move closer. I wanted to feel his body on mine again. I wished we were far away from this place, somewhere private, where I could give him what I hadn’t been able to for so long. ‘It’s OK, Penny. Don’t worry.’ You’ve fucked it all up. Can’t even have one good conversation, can you? Andrew stayed a few more minutes and tried to tell me stories from work.. He looked awful, run over and wrung out. But then, so did we. I had learned to shave my face without actually seeing myself in the mirror."You want me to call the doc?" I asked since we had a team physician at all the games, but he was not in the stadium until about an hour before game time. The trainer and the clubhouse boys did the taping and oversaw the whirlpools baths.He shook his head."You eat today?" I asked."Hamburger," he said. "Then I threw up." You going to play tonight?" Sure," he. Jimmey, Mahala, Sallie, Cisley, and Lucey were beside themselves knowing that Mr. Greene’s slaves--their friends--would be freed. We bought more paper and a steel pen. Everyone tried to duplicate Mr. Greene’s signature. Belle did such a good job that it looked like the real thing. Tara wrote out a bill of sale for all seven of the former slaves and Belle put Greene’s signature on them. Emma signed them using her father’s name as the witness.Then we headed to find Samuel. “Try to be back in four.