No doubt his ambition was for worldly luxuries, but decadent distractions had left him resembling one of those fat, laughing Buddhas, with the laugh r...placed by a cruel sneer. 'Pure uglification,' thought Lacie, wondering where she'd heard the word; 'a dirty mind in a depraved body'. What was this talk of him 'taking her to his bed'? Even if she wanted to, would her offering to such a haughty man be met by anything but derision?Even worse was the audience of sailors. Six of them, hand-picked.. Along the way Iwondered to myself, but did not ask, why Carla was dressed as herselfand not costumed for what I assumed to be a Hallowe'en party.On our arrival at a house in the suburbs, Carla brought along a coupleof gift-wrapped parcels from the car. These were handed to the hostess,who took them into another room while we hung up our coats and put onour shoes. Then we were led downstairs to a recreation room where I wasintroduced to Mona, and Betty, and Sarah, and Roberta, and Jane,. As the bus swayed to and fro as it passed over the Chicago River Bridge, Robin thought that the only real problem she had since moving to The Big Windy was the lack of any real social life. By now she had hoped to have made some close friends but it just hadn’t worked out that way with the heavy workload she was carrying. Even in college and having just a handful of good friends, with no boy friends at all, Robin worried about her seeming total disinterest in men and often wondered if she were. Their expressions exhibited such pride. A blacktized white girl was such a prize, such a trophy and being close to her gave them such a personal promotion. They were winners. It seemed to change their entire outlook on life.I was sitting between two of them, with two on the floor at my feet enjoying my spread legs, when Jamal came into the room from the hall. His wide smile quelled any anxiety I might have had. He came over, kissed me gently, and continued on to the kitchen for coffee. SYBIL’S.