’ she said as she took the assigned seat beside her friend. She waved and greeted the people around her trying to notice everything about which she ...ould give a positive comment. Barb and she had been friends from the day they met. Down on the field the players were warming up. Tossing the ball back and forth simulating grounders, throwing between bases and then into the pitchers mound. Tonight they were warming up to play an old rival. She liked the minor league teams better than the majors.. But as a baby she really was sweet and actually much less demanding than her two year old brother Pan had been at her age. I know, Pan and Van. It hadn’t really been conscious that coincidence. Of course a girl would never be called Van. Vanny maybe. So its good we called her Nessy for whatever reason it might have been. We got up. I got dressed while Jill quieted the baby. I took her so Jill could dress. We headed upstairs. Time to explain our new home. Upstairs. Downstairs. Two different. I’d left explicit words that if a scavenger did show up during the night, then the sentry was to discourage it from nibbling on Kirov, and that they could do so forcefully if necessary. Those orders implied that I actually wanted the man alive in the morning. Xypha had acknowledged receiving those instructions from the person she’d relieved, earlier in the night, and that she had disregarded them. With her admission all further discussion had come to an end. At the time I’d warned her that she. "You're enjoying this," I told her when she was standing in front of me,inspecting me."Absolutely," she said. "Let's get you in your pantaloons right now."My what?"She was behind me again. I turned to see her holding up what lookedlike a pair of satiny lavender long johns, except these had an elasticwaist and frilly lace trim around the leg holes."Oh my God," I said. They were the girliest thing I'd ever seen in mylife."Come on!" she said. "Either you can put them on yourself like a biggirl.