It took Josh a few moments to accurately process what he was holding. Hesaw the picture on the front of it, sure. He turned it over and sawfolds of bl...e fabric mixed in with some form of outfit. He even saw adistended face with long, pointed ears through the transparent fabric ofthe bag. But still it took his mind a few moments to piece together whathe had just been given."This is a girl's costume," he said bluntly, holding it out for theshopkeeper."This one too," Chad said. "Made a mistake, I. A very Arab country, and I was an American soldier attached to the local consulate. I should not have been out like this, alone and unprotected. But I had a mission to complete. One that was personal. No one could know I was here, especially my superiors. I had seen her several weeks before in the local bazaar. She wasn't alone, of course, but I could see her eyes as they gazed into mine. I could see the twinkle and the crinkle around her eyes as she smiled from the hijab surrounding her face.. The dress looked to be around her size but Pepper wanted to try it on to see if it fit, but found out the shop didn’t have a dressing room. She asked the lady in the shop if it would be okay if she tried the dress on at the back of the store and she said it was okay, but warned her that husband was due back soon. Pepper took off her halter top and shorts and like usual she was not wearing anything underneath. She slipped on the dress and looked in the mirror with the sleeves up and down on. When I had bobbed back up, she had thought about running to me, but she feared that she might break through the ice. Her nurses training had taught her to assess the situation, and she had accomplished that as best she could. But now that the danger was past, all the pent up emotions began to come to the surface.I was beginning to feel some of the strain, as the adrenalin rush began to subside. What would have happened to Dawn, if I had not survived? What would have happened if I had not.