Not a girlish, silly giggle but a warm, slightly deep, subtle laugh that rippled beautifully. "Jesus fu-" I caught myself "I mean Jesus... Christ!"It ...as with a jolt of realisation that I understood that the goddess standing before me, this perfect creature, was the groom's older sister. Only older by about two years but we had never really been friends in the past. I hadn't liked girls with curly brown hair and glasses and teeth that looked too big for her mouth and a flat chest and. ..”She smiled demurely. “I worried. I don’t think HE does...”“No,” I smiled. “I bet he doesn’t.”Bill Carmody’s turn:The ancient Chinese curse probably applies: “May you live in interesting times.” Yup, been getting interesting around here. Maybe things will settle down, now that my son (!) has been born. Cute little guy, Bill Junior (we’re calling him “Will”, until he can state some other preference).Nicknames are important in the south, you know, and they come from so many different sources.. "Upstairs, Quartz was lying naked on her bed, with half a dozenholographic displays floating in front of her. A small army ofelectronic gismos was arrayed before her in a semicircle, with hertablet humming away in the middle. She was fiddling with two of thelittle devices in front of her when she heard a knock from the door ofher room."Come in, it's open"She heard a masculine gasp of surprise, and feminine chuckles, andBrian's voice floated to her ears, "You could have warned me, Dan."She. ”Her comments were providential as my cellphone rang. What would appear on all but a few caller ID’s is the words “Restricted Number”. What appeared on mine was “Miss OC 1978”.I answered, “Hello...”“Hi, Rory, it’s me.”At Mick’s insistence, we had a long-established routine to ensure that we were positive that we were speaking to each other and not someone trying to impersonate one of us over the phone, “What brand of beer were we drinking on July 18th, 1976,” I asked her.“Olympia,” Mick.