We'd been friends ever since 1st grade and nothing like this had ever happened before.We were both married but had been on the road for almost a month...before the incident that I'm about to tell you about happened. We'd started a new company together, you know, working for yourself and all. We had to travel to meet our new customer base and we were close to being broke so we shared all the expenses including motel rooms.As I said before, we had been on the road for almost a month when one. The people Wally and I do business with just laugh her off, so, so far, she hasn't hurt me. So far.I just have to write down something about the bash Major Scampi threw last weekend to celebrate the completion of another series of one minute spots for Philo. Even by Babylon standards, it was a humdinger. I swear Scampi must've gone down Sunset Strip with a dust pan to get his guests. Transvestites, hookers, speed- freaks, transvestite-hookers, speed-freak-transvestite-hookers, not to mention. I have talked with President Ruskin's two daughters and they have agreed that their parents' bodies will lie in state here in the East Room of the White House. Members of my staff are working very closely with them to plan the funeral, and as soon as the arrangements have been made, we will announce them to the public."She paused for a moment. "If someone had told me twenty four hours ago that I would be standing here taking the oath of office as President of the United States, I would have. It was an automatic response which found me hugging her tight against me. Her arms wrapped around me and I felt her lips touch my neck. "Oh, Mom ... I never knew ... you were ... beautiful together ... just beautiful..." Oh, Kira..." I felt a swell of happiness unexpectedly. To have shared that with my daughter, that my lost secret had been ripped open, my heart and body raw before Kira's eyes, was relieving in a way I couldn't have predicted. "Thank you ... thank you..." I thought ... I.