What was going on? I wondered, as I went into the kitchen to get soda andsnacks for my friends. I screamed, my stomach heaved trying to vomit,and I a...lmost fell from faintness -- at the blood in the kitchen.My friends rushed in behind me, and suddenly there was chaos everywhereas everyone screamed, fainted. I felt myself being pulled back, andheard Vanessa shouting over the noise, "Everyone, back in the livingroom! NOW!" She was grabbing and yanking us all away. I only barelynoticed now. "Joe walked out. "A garage off the main road between here and the Californiaborder, shit that is a lot of mileage to cover and I doubt it will be in theYellow Pages." Thought Joe. He decided to go to bed and come up with a planwhen his mind was clearer.Joe was surprised how easy it was to find the garage. Using the Internet andsome aerial map websites he quickly narrowed down his search to 3 possiblesites. He was able to delete two from the list by checking on county taxroles. So now he knew. Here was an older version of me, carrying my developing fetus before my entry into the world.I hadn't really thought of myself as beautiful before. Daddy and Jack said I was but, as Wanda said, we women all find faults with ourselves. Looking now at the sheer beauty of this woman and recognizing how much she looked like me, I realized that I was beautiful, too. It wasn't a vain thing. It was more like a guy looking at a picture of himself and realizing that he was muscular.There was a variety. But the weather was becoming increasingly uncooperative. Igwanda had thought little of it when he observed the Edenites making a major harvest of their crops, until he idly asked Akakha about it one day. Eden, it seemed, was the proud possessor of a rainy season which, moreover, was on the verge of beginning. For about the equivalent of the next three Earth months it was going to get very wet. Something would clearly have to be done.With his military responsibilities shelved, Igwanda had.