As I finished dressing, Marianne returned to escort me to a large lounge area where we found the other members gathered, sipping drinks and conversing...quietly. Ordering us both drinks from the bar, she led me from group to group, introducing me to dozens of elegantly dressed men and women whose names I immediately forgot but whom I was sure I would know much more intimately in the very near future.After being introduced to all the people present, Marianne said, "I'll leave you to mingle now.. "On the way to the airport, we convinced the taxi driver to pull into a Burger King for some breakfast sandwiches as a light breakfast on the way.At the aircraft, Lisa and I went through all of the preflight activities, including rechecking the fuel quantity to make sure we had been topped off, and that the fuel covers had been replaced properly. We quickly went through the startup procedures and let the engines come up to power as we finished the checklist. Lisa was talking to ground control. “Baba, aap hi le chalo ” I begged.“Beta tabiyet bahut kharaab hai, yaha se Hospital chala jaunga ”—————–It had been 15-20 minutes since I was alone in the bus with Birju. He had not said anything till now. I saw him checking me out once or twice but nothing besides that. That wasn ‘t his fault though. The school uniform was provocative, to say the least. Skirt usually exposed the better part of your thighs and the Shirt was too tight on my chest so I decided to open the first tow buttons, which. ” She smiled. This wasn’t so bad! She would be out ofthis in no time! She felt something touch her knee. Shejerked it slightly, aware of its bare state. The object waswarm and soft. What was it? The pressure felt interestingas it sat motionless on her flesh. Her nerves started totingle in the area. “Your elbow.” “Nope. The palm of my hand.” She lifted her blindfoldto see he wasn’t lying. His palm rested on her knee, thefingers outstretched.