” Winking at Maureen, Ginger said, “I have to forgive his presumptuousness. He may be a bad boy, but he's my boy and I love him dearly.” Maureen...laughed. “It's easy to see why.” Scotty whispered. “Damn straight.” Ginger shook her head in exasperation. Maureen and I couldn't stop laughing. Ten minutes later I75 turned into I595. We took the second exit and drove south. After passing an aging strip mall we turned into a gravel parking lot the size of three football fields. Several dozen semi. They listened to the clunk and knocking of the port-boatdocking. "That's the plan."* * *They talked long into the night. They talked about the ship, about Amy,always as a third person. It was an odd conversation. Captain Scoleywas dead. Hume, the cabin boy, smarter than anyone else, had eventuallyrose to take his place. They had drifted, the little family ofcutthroats, for a long time, until Hume began to plan schemes thatactually worked. They hadn't become rich, but they'd done pretty wellfor. I had been doing this for some time to help to pay my University fees.I knocked at the door to be greeted by this vision of loveliness."Hi," I said, handing over my card, "I'm here to take your picture for your wedding album." Oh no," she laughed, "It's not me, it's my sister you want. I'm just a bridesmaid."Somehow I was relieved that this gorgeous girl was not the one getting married. I followed her into the lounge only to see another vision, an older and shapelier version of the first. "I'm not going in there," I said, now genuinely frightened. It was one thing to be an imitation woman in privacy, and enjoy theillusion. But this was authentic woman territory, and I was notone of them. To go in there, I thought superstitiously, might makeme more of one of them than I wanted. It seemed terribly risky. "Oh, Andrew, don't be silly. Do you want your ears pierced bysome teenager at the earring bazaar in the middle of the mall, infull view of everyone passing by? Or here,.