Indru safetyaaga jatti aninthu irunthen, appozhuthu thaan sunni viraithalum aval kanavanal athai kandupidika mudiyaathu. Akka eppozhuthum pola veetil ...ondrum theriyathaval pola irunthaal, aval kanavan naan selum pozhuthu sapitukondu irunthaan. Naan ulle sendrathum avar kai kazhivitu vanthu sapidu paa endru solinaar.Naan neraga kitchen sendren appozhuthu akkavum en udan vanthaal. Kai kazhuvum pozhuthu en kanathil oru mutham seithu vitu sendraal. Ena da nadakuthu enge endru ninaithen, pinbu naanum. He introduced himself I but didn't even react; no one will care about his name.There were five of them, wearing school girl uniforms and wigs with the same page boy cut but in five different colors. Mine was wearing pink.I pointed to her and waved my finger up and down. "This your idea?"She blushed. "No."I opened the rope. "Come on."The other four squealed and moved forward. I stopped them. "Not you; just her." But we're together!" The blue one insisted."Her." I insisted. "Not you."They looked. So I had to leave school and head into the workforce. A year and a half later we added yet another child into our fold and at the age of twenty-three, my life revolved around family, work and the house we bought, about an hour from the old neighborhood. As for Jeff and Steve, we spoke occasionally on the phone and still got together a couple of times a year to shoot the shit over some beers, but nothing like back in the day. It was the fall of 1994 and I got a call from Steve that Jeff's dad. After he was gone, she spent a long time on the floor, tears flowing down her cheeks. Frightened beyond thought, all she could do was wait for the cruel masters of Tyran to come through her castle door. ~ o ~ Some time ago, Elizabeth had met Stephan for the first time. He was a poet of minor note but a gentle soul of promise. Elizabeth had seen that in him and cultivated him into the husband that she had always desired. She was twenty then and thirty now. Red hair cascaded down, brightened more.