I adore him. I would cheerfully sacrifice my life for him. In fact, I guess that's what I'm doing." She broke down in tears and huddled in a small bal... in the corner of the sofa. Watching Ali's misery made it the very worst day of Barbara Jamison's life. She went over and held Ali in her arms and just listened as she cried her heart out.The next day Ginger got a call from Sandy Harris while she was in Bill's suite. Barbara never told Ali that Ginger had come down to Austin with her. Sandy said,. “Come,” I said taking her leash and leading her onward. We traveled to a room with several collared pets both men and women, all were silent and waiting further commands. I led Kitty into the center of the group, made her kneel as the others were kneeling, then I released her leash. I moved off to a bank of leather chairs and selected one and sat. Kitty’s eyes followed my every move. I picked up a book and read six chapters while Kitty waited. Now she was ready. I covered Kitty in my overcoat. I’d worked for a few years selling farm and ranch equipment but since the problems with Cindy Lou I lived on the income from several oil wells over by Midland that became mine when my dad died. They weren’t pumping huge volumes so I was getting around ten grand a month. That was plenty of money for me but it hadn’t been near enough for Cindy. I met Cindy the summer after I finished college in Austin, with a degree in Oil and Gas Engineering. Summers starting from when I’d finished high school,. So she’s from Sydney.”“Well, she’s from some town in the Riverina. But she was the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the NSW legislature. She’s also Labor. It will be interesting to see what transpires.”“That’s ‘interesting’ as in the fictitious Chinese curse?”“‘Fictitious’?”“So I’ve been told. But it’s good, anyway.”“None of this will be instantaneous. In fact, it may not be right. I might be fantasizing the whole construct.”“No. Not quite. It actually seems quite plausible. It’s not.