" Well, I guess I'm guilty of that I suppose," Charlie responded as hedried the pan that Lily had cleaned."I think you should let me clean them up a l...ttle." Are you nuts?" No. It won't be that noticeable." That can't be true," Charlie countered Lily's self-assured answer."Men get a little manscaping all the time now." Is that a term of art?" I think so," Lily replied before she added, "I think it'll make a bigdifference." For what?" Looking more the part when you're in your tights." I'm not. I think they were afraid that I would tell Ma that they had been pesterin' me.Anyway, once I got old enough, 9 I think it was, Ma quit takin' me ta school. Instead, I rode old Blacky, our one-eyed hoss, ta school. Fer protection, Pa gave me a double barrel pistol ta carry. Shit, that damned pistol was heavy, but not as heavy at that shotgun what Ma favored. It was a muzzle-loading flintlock, too, but I was right proud of it, since it could kill most anythin' I was likely ta shoot at. The. I had to laughed! IfI told her what actually had happened she would probably lock me up in anice padded room. Humm maybe a stay at the rubber romper room won't be sobad? But after a few weeks I stopped going I felt that it wasn't reallyhelping me any, all she would do it set up these goals for me to achieveand say I needed to get out more, to meet new people. Please, duh.Then I started to realize something, something I could not believe I hadmissed before. My depression now as in the past were. ‘Elke, we made a deal for you to teach me languages. Our earlier deal was for you to have dinner with me—nothing more. ‘You are a beautiful woman and I am physically attracted to you or I wouldn’t be a man. I don’t take a woman to bed for money, but because I like or love her. You owe me nothing.’ She looked at me in surprise, ‘Really?’ ‘Yes, Elke, really.’ Chapter 2 The next morning I found my way to Captain Myer’s section in the building and arrived at 0745. First Sergeant Franklin was.