With his permission I'm going to share it with you guys. If you like it, I'll have him share more details of his new Poker Mates.---------------------...---------------------------------------------------------------------The COVID shut down really stuffed up my life. I'm just twenty years old, I lost of my job, I moved back with my parents.I'm not out to my parents, so for a few months there I had no social life, no sex life and no money. Pretty embarrassing having to go to your Dad cap in hand. Tomorrow, perhaps, you will find your name. Should such a tomorrow come, the Mudheel tribe will welcome you back. But today, your only home is the swamp. Now. Begone!” The leader thumps the butt of his spear against a stump, once, twice, three times. His words have become law. You and your peers turn away from the chief and walk past the ring of trees that mark the edge of the village. Nobody follows you, but a sentry watches passively from a tree, and you know there are a couple scouts outside. Most days, Mrs. Clark was just happy enough to sit in the break room, try to bring her blood nicotine level back into balance, and try to gather her strength, while she wished she taught at the high school, wondering what had ever convinced her she wanted to teach elementary school.At that, she was glad she'd turned down the chance to go over to the middle school this year. The elementary kids were bad enough, but when they got a little older and reached puberty, it was hormone hell over. Alan respectfully asked the man to “give us some space” and he very nicely moved away. In fact, I think he left the beach entirely so it must have been time for him to go anyway. Alan joined me in the shelter and we chatted and watched Kt in the water. She would be a dolphin if she weren’t a human. After a bit more chat, Kt came back and joined us in the shelter. It is a fairly large shelter but with three of us in there, it meant we were all fairly close together. We told Kt what Alan was.