"Thank you." No, thank you," the manager said, stepping aside.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "I told you, that you should get a reduction," Tina said as we lay out on her ...eck."Nope," I said, shaking my head and enjoying the warm breeze, for once the weather was beautiful. We knew it wouldn't last; soon the cold would come back, but for now, it was sunny, without a cloud in the sky."If you weren't as big, they would have had your car ready in a heartbeat," Tina said."And I would have had to pay for it," I pointed. "Mio Dio! She is stupido." He thought. "Si Mrs. Pagano, I have here five thousand lira for you."The money changed hands."Giovanni, go with the priest. He will see to you from now on," his mother called."Come son, I will protect you now."The young boy and the priest left the dirty apartment, never to return again. Three day later his mother was found dead from an overdose.Giovanni never knew.The religious order Giovanni was taken to was extreme. They felt that whippings and beatings brought. " "Well,use your hand, or skirt or whatever. Why is that a big deal?" "I'mnot supposed to touch myself, you know, down there. It's a school rule andI"m a good girl MissTanya. Don't you have some tissues or something?" Tanyaand Henry had played out their pool scenario several times since they had metand became friends. They had made some good bucks with their clever con and ithad never failed. The rich college boys were always brimming with confidenceafter winning money from a guy who looked. .. ummm." She giggled again at herconfusion. "Harry, can you come up and tell everybody the rest of it.You can, like explain it a lot better than I can."Harry was sitting near the front with the rest of the basketball team.He squirmed past them to the aisle and ran up onto the stage. The wholetime the auditorium rang with cheers for the captain of the team and theplayer who had made 23 points, winning the championship game the nightbefore. He acknowledged the cheers with a long wave of his arm.