See my article,“Travels with Tessa: Going Down in Dixie”, where Isample much of the population of the American south. As an experiment in ...socio-biology, I made it a point ofsaying to my black lovers, “My, you’re hung bigger thanan Algerian!” and every single one of them replied,“Damn straight!” I concluded from that that Americanblacks are well aware of their differences with theirNorthern African cousins. But back to Paris. Sauntering towards the. Apparently those were her exact words. She only maintained very sporadic contact with the family, and even then only through explosive exchanges with Helen, the last contact being made about four or five years ago.She didn't attend our wedding, missed all the significant events of our families, and was apparently unapologetic about it all. We didn't know what she was doing, how she was going, if she was married, had a family or any of the important details that make up a life.I only barely knew. So I did the only thing I could do to keep my sanity, I came back to the fold. The idea that I belonged to the only outfit in U S history that had lost a war compelled me to re-up. It wasn’t easy to get back into fighting trim after my vacation. I worked my ass off to stay up with all those kids. Physically, any one of them could run circles around me at first, but I had a mental toughness that you can’t buy. War is the only place to learn that, and either you learn, or die. Those boys hadn’t. He didn't feel nearly as self-conscious about Tomas setting near by watching him undress as he'd thought he might; and in fact, Tomas' reaction to seeing Omar getting naked excited Omar.Then, without a word, he stepped up to Mara, took her smooth, pale, nakedness into his arms and pulled her close to him and kissed her! It was at that precise moment where Omar no longer concerned himself with Tomas. His concentration was now totally on Mara, and Mara only! Yes of course, she was this other.