” I fumed inside, and if I hadn’t been bound up this tight, I would have kicked her. Instead I could only grunt and wiggle. “Ah, eager again. Do...n’t worry, the first quarter of your punishment is already over.” The first quarter? My puffy, red-rimmed eyes must have become big like saucers, because she began to laugh throatily at my desperation. “Oh, don’t look so surprised,” she admonished, “eight hundred strokes aren’t done in ten minutes. But I’ve got one good message for you - after I’m done. Holden, the one your mother got into it with,” he added.“What happened to the first one?”“She died about ten years ago in a car accident. They had two children, but one was grown and in college when the accident happened, and he moved away years ago. The second was in the accident, too, and she died. This is his second wife, and Randy is their son. The first boy turned out okay, but he moved to California or someplace out west. Randy’s a real pain, I gather. That wasn’t the first time he had. He was a great looking guy too; tall with chiseled features and a muscular, athletic body. The time that Ulrich did not spend catching waves or tending to sick animals and birds, he spent posing for me. He clearly did not need the money as he came from an affluent Heidelberg family who regularly sent him all the cash he needed. My twenty dollars an hour went to buy food and medicine for injured blue-tongued lizards, koalas and magpies – and I was more than happy with that. He seemed to love the. Molly smiled smugly at my amusement and said, "Yeah. You know how they call big men 'Tiny'? Well, I called my big, strong, almost hairless dog, 'Fluffy'! Dad was disgusted with me, in a fatherly sort of way, but I doubt that he'll ever suspect I'm having an affair with a dog named 'Fluffy'!" No, probably not!" I chuckled."So what's the 'big' occasion, anyway?" Molly asked as we descended the stairs to the dungeon."I had a very enjoyable visit from an acquaintance of yours, and just thought I'd.