The gas lampsspluttered and flickered in the wet night and the pools of light theycreated only helped make the alley even less appealing.There were no... tricks in this weather. The other girls had gone back,figuring that a slap and a row were better than to be soaked through.Lizzie had less choice - she had a bigger debt to pay. She pulled thelacy sleeve of the heavy sodden dress down over the worst of her scars."Sod this," she thought to herself, and made a break for it, picking upher skirts. She vaguely wondered where the laundry hamper was but realized that she didn't actually care.After slipping the shoulder straps of her sensible cotton bra off she spun the cups around to the back and unfastened the fairly new underwear letting it join her other clothes on the floor. When the white panties joined the pile she was ready to test out her new shower.The small box in the corner had all the bath products in it. Finding the shower gel was easy, the shampoo and conditioner took a bit of. Looking back to previous stages of our physical growth, we think of how much better things were back then. They weren’t, it was just that we didn’t see the true consequences of our actions at the time. We didn’t recognize the missed opportunities until long after they had passed.Upon stepping out of the auditorium, Ed was greeted by hearty cheers from his family, friends, staff, and classmates. The crowd shouted, “Congratulations, DOCTOR Ed Biggers.”Smiling broadly, Ed replied, “Thank you. I. I'll double what you are making waitressing." She hesitated."Jackie, I can afford to fly you back to visit your kids or fly your kids out to visit you. Plus I'll need you when they say your mother is ready to leave the treatment center. Please accept, I don't want to lose you again"With tears in her eyes, she accepted. She then ran to share the news of her new job with her family.The next two weeks were busy for both me and Jackie. I was back on the 10,000 city (or at least it seemed like it).