“So what did you come for? Window shopping?”I laughed. “Distraction really. I didn’t want to go home.”“Your old lady giving you hell?” I... took a moment to get the words out. “I don’t have a girlfriend.” “Just lose one?” “I never had one, I suppose.” Mickey squeezed my arm, “That’s the sort of words that always end up in a sad story She use you for something?” “No, she didn’t.” ‘You leave her?” “Never.” Mickey leaned forward and took a long sip of simulated vodka. “Man you really are mixed up. I heard the stream to the East. Then I saw her. She was standing up waving her arms and there were two shapes by her feet. As I reached her the shapes resolved into bodies. Oh shit, I thought. Two incapacitated people would be very difficult to deal with. I might be only fifty yards from my tent but that was a long way to carry anyone across uneven ground in the dark. ‘What’s up?’ I asked. ‘We are lost and my friends are nearly unconscious. We went out for a walk this afternoon but couldn’t. “She had twins.”“I’ll want to meet them!” Béla replied excitedly.“And there’s someone I want to meet, too,” Elaine said, more solemnly now, knowing Béla would know who she meant.“There’s a celebration going on in the Grotto,” Béla told all of her sisters. “We can join her there.”‘Grotto?’Béla laughed, ‘I’ll explain later,’ and teleported the group down to Lisa’s Grotto. There were only a few humans, there – entire families celebrating their last day aboard the Phoenix III. Most were in the. . clothes! They were all convinced that very soon Ottilie was going to be needing a new wardrobe. Anyway I kind-a figured that Tara was going to have a busy Christmas morning opening all of her mother's presents or at least ... Oh shit I can't recall now what I thought was going to happen that day; I wasn't intending to be there anyway!We had this very diplomatically worked out plan in place. While some of the rota girls sat with Ottilie Christmas Eve, I was eating that night with Joan and her.