"Joanne" was close to my real name, and I thought that"Jennifer" and "Stephanie" were pretty, because a lot of my girl friendshad those names. After ...rying a few possibilities, Gran said, "What about 'Mary'?" Therewas something in the simplicity of "Mary," and the unmistakeablefemininity of the name (no alternate male versions) that just made itfeel right. Mary... If I was going to be a girl, that would be thename to announce it.Gran immediately started referring to me as Mary, and it was. The Pub was one of the oldest buildings in the Northern Territory, a quaint place armoured with corrugated iron, draped with bougainvillea and decorated with decades of memorabiliaNow little more than a stopover for people travelling along the Stuart Highway, the tiny settlement was named by John McDouall Stuart during his epic attempt to cross Australia from south to north in 1861-2.Dave and the girls decided that a cool beer would be nice as it was very hot and it had been a long day's drive.. My parents and I were the only ones at the party that weren’t friends of Maxi. There were eight girls and three guys all her age, none of my friends were there. After the party started our mom and dad faded to somewhere, the noise was too much for them. My job was to keep the music going like some sort of party DJ but after an hour or so I left for a date with Paige. When I got back around midnight the house was quiet but totally littered with discarded plastic tumblers, paper plates with. “You know gas planets are the best source for Nuc Gas, the stuff we use to power Isah Pods. The refineries grew, permanent crews brought their families and they wanted to shop and have schools and before you knew it, floating cities came into wide spread use. Corri System being an important fleet depot and traffic hub and all, thats why we have refineries on Corry Giant. The Cities down there float on a thin layer of liquid water vapor actually and below is metallic helium and hydrogen and all.