She's surprised to hear from me but still friendly. We go shopping. It's springtime. I tell her I want a new look. All the agency clothes go on the sc...ap heap. All my old clothes went long ago. My men's clothes. I am a woman. I have to start over with everything. I buy basic functional clothing mostly. The places Ruth takes me have clothes that fit me even though I am a big woman. By becoming a woman I have become much bigger. I like to look at my new clothes in a mirror. When I am wearing. Billy and I had explained trajectory, and wind direction, and gauging distances, but this was something they hadn't yet picked up on.The training teams stood down over Christmas and went back for two weeks of R&R at the Uzbek Hilton, the oil drilling camp just over the border in Uzbekistan.You have to hand it to the Yanks, they sure know how to organise a good time. There were about thirty of us, a half dozen Brits and the rest Americans, staying in The Uzbek Hilton; the accommodation was first. "Hello,sweet thing." Spike said, giving Max's body a long, sweeping glance."Careful Spike, this one'll kill you given the chance!" Bane laughed."Careful, I might have to take you up on that offer. Been awhile since I had a good tumble."Spike replied, with a wry look at Max."Come to think of it, I may have heard of you, Angel."Max said, ignoring Spike. "Not long ago, a bunch of people came from L.A. saying that they had seen dragons,demon hordes and all kinds of other weird shit. Didn't think. His dad was some sort of academic administrator at the Curtin VTEC in Kalgoorlie. As he was near graduation, he was permitted a vehicle, which explained the unfamiliar ute on the verge. He'd already applied to UNSW where he wanted to study maths.The dads had already fired up the grille. I wasn't certain which was in charge. It looked as though there was lamb, chicken and prawns awaiting the ritual of becoming a burnt offering. I could see there were also two enormous bowls of salads.Sarah was.