I dug in my heels and put my shoulder to it, grunting with the amount of force that I was using. It reluctantly gave ground—slowly at first—then, ...ithout warning, it grated free. A loud raspy scraping sound caused by wood on stone echoed throughout the area. I lost my balance at the unexpected shift and fell forward through the doorway, landing roughly on my hands and knees while cursing in embarrassed anger.“JJ!” Heather screamed in startlement, echoed by a nervous Abby right after her.“Son of. ” He jerked his thumbed over his shoulder at his crewmen...”These lads are not from Calcutta, which is predominantly Hindu, but from the largely Muslim region of East Bengal. They can all swim like fish as their coastal homeland is frequently flooded, being low lying and visited by cyclones. Not many Indians can swim, so that is also an advantage for me as I don’t lose a crewman if he falls overboard.”In the parlance of the Honourable East India Company, Captain Adie had ‘gone native’. He had. The next day I rode my bike over to Vanessa’s apartment. Even though I have my driver’s license now I don’t have a car yet but I don’t really miss having one. It was Sunday and I happened to see my sister and brother in law Dale in the apartment parking lot. He was working on his pickup truck. Actually, he was drinking beer and bullshitting with a couple of his buddies but he did have his mechanic tools out. “Welcome, Eric,” said Dale, “sit down and have a beer. What’s up?” I ignored his offer. He smiled, never taking his eyes from mine, he pulled me even closer and put his cheek to mine for just a moment. I could feel his warm breath on my neck and felt my hair rise and fall with each inhale and exhale. His hands were now on either side of my hips. His fingertips explored the contour of my waist and hips. Normally this would make me very uncomfortable and self-conscious but I kept remembering I was Neil’s good girl and I reveled at his touch. There were very few people around but I.