On warm summer evenings I would go with friends to the old lock where there was a pool where we could swim in relatively safely and the water was deli...iously cool on those warm evenings. There were always a lot of people about, families, courting couples, teenagers and c***dren of my age. There were also a small number of single men who we k**s “knew” to be gay, though that word wasn’t used in those far off days to denote homosexuals.One evening I went down to the river only to find that none. One follows the other, but which came first is a matter of conjecture, like the chicken or the egg. Of course, the fact that I was now liable for battalion duties, which I hadn't done during my 2 years at Reading ARO, could have had some bearing on my antipathy towards the place.After Miriam's contre temps at the Frascetti's resturant I rarely visited Plaistow, no more than once every other month for a weekend. I suppose you could describe my relationship with Miriam as slightly less than. What am I talking about? Well let me begin at the beginning, sort of. I'm a thirty-something woman in a Northeastern town with the proverbial two kids, one cat, one dog and one hard working husband. He and I met in college and he went on for his master's degree and works hard every day. I am a graphic designer, well I was, until I got pregnant with my second son and my job was conveniently 'phased out.'Now I'm the 'stay-at-home' mom and wife. You know the one. I clean, cook I attend all their. I think that is just what he needed. He had lost his job as protector when they joined us and he was just a little boy again, now he knew he had an important job here, whether I was here or not. I called his sisters over to talk to them too. “Mertir, Jerrel, come here for a moment, I need to speak to you about while we are gone. When we leave, your mother, Barb and I, on this journey to Detara’s camp, I am leaving Mertir in charge of the cooking and cleaning for you three.” Mertir grinned.