The door finally opened by Mary, who wore a t-shirt and shorts. Her hair, unkempt and her mascara ruined; sleep bags hanging under her eyes as she bar...ly managed to stand.“Come in before anyone sees,” she said rubbing her eyes.I entered the room and closed the door. I turned to look around the room and found it to be in a mess. Books on the table, wine bottles on the floor, clothes on the bed and plastic wrappers all around.“Are you alright?” I said as I scanned the room to place my next. The more one borrows from the Kaa’bah, the more one needs.”“The more you lie here the more twisted you’ll get,” said Rashida. “You have to move around, take part in some activity, maybe make new friends. You can’t close everyone out. We need some sort of social support. Why don’t you ask some of your friends down in the Kaa’bah to go out to dinner one of these days?”“What if they find out who I am?”“Don’t tell them your last name. It’ll be fine.”“The time for making friends has come and. ” Of course we were interested and walked through some curtains to the “other room.” The room was full of couples sitting in booths and surrounding a small stage on which were a chair and a table, spotlighted by several overhead lights. I looked around as my eyes adjusted in the dark and there were old, young and in-between ages of couples all looking toward the stage. A man walked out on the stage saying “Ladies and Gentlemen. You are about to witness a show of lust, human lust, animal. Peter Johansen buthad put off contacting him, thinking she could figure things out forherself. But it was becoming clear to her to get him to meet up withher, perhaps for a fancy dinner. Hmm that would be the apropos way todo for that, she concluded as she heard the bell ring for lunch break.When she left the office, she scurried off to the ladies' and placedher call, then realizing it went straight to voicemail, left a messagehoping that Mr. Johansen would call her back.//////Peter Johansen.