We did not bring up that topic until that weekend. On Friday evening, I casually asked him if he was gay and our conversation went on like this,“So,...you just like dressing like a girl, or are you really gay?” I asked.“I am so sorry Sai (my real name). I will not dress like that again, please forgive me,” he pleaded crying.“It’s ok, don’t worry about it, in fact, I liked seeing you like that, can you dress me like that?” I asked him shyly.His eyes widened on hearing this, and then he asked me,. ‘We have an open marriage, I love my wife and she loves me, but I know she has more than one lover.’ Miranda stared at him, her mouth agape, and astonishment on her face for all to see. ‘Miranda, that’s fifteen.’ Sandy’s voice crackled across the intercom. ‘Be right out Sandy, just gotta get my hat back on.’ ‘Are you angry with me Miranda?’ ‘I don’t know, my shift ends in two hours, we’ll go somewhere and talk then.’ ‘Ok.’ They walked quietly back down the dank hallway to the noisy bar. Sandy. It was the most posing pose that had ever posed. His whole body flared and I trembeld, unable to move. Dio ‘hurmphed’ and then fished out two magazines. The Uzis dropped down from where he had tossed them, the magazines clicked home, and Dio smirked.“When you wake up in hell, dragon,” he said, his voice booming. “Tell them that it was I, Dio, who sent you!”And he opened up with both Uzis.Bullets slammed into my chest and shoulder and face and shins and thighs and arms and I danced backwards,. She couldn’t bear to concede it to herself, but this was personal. Her connection to him went beyond the Navy. It went beyond the Confederacy. It was personal.Through sheer force of will, she kept the tears in her eyes from falling. She couldn’t allow her focus to be on him, so she turned it to the situation. The whole thing was a mess. Then again, it seemed messes congregated around Calix. At least this time it wasn’t his fault. The Earth Firsters had taken all of them by surprise.She never.