“Hi,” said the girl shyly. “I’m Johnnie Sue Thorpe. I go to school with your girls.”“Well, pleased to meet you.” said Marian. “Won’t... you come in?”Hilda Mae appeared at her elbow.“Johnnie Sue!” she said. “What in the world are you doing here?”“Well,” said Johnnie Sue, affecting a high and lilting voice, “what with us not having school and all, I got to thinking that I’d never had the chance to have one of those slumber parties I’ve heard about ... and I asked my Mamma, and she said it would be. The wife fixed him a plate of stew she cooked. She handed it to him and I could see he was still taken back by the gesture. The wife then fixed me and her plate. We all sat at the table. Since no more skimmishing for the day I offered a beer to our guest as I had one in my hand. He took it and said thanks.Stan, the black fellow, was a college student studying American history. He told me he went to the different camps to see how the groups were. He wants to join a group but being a poor student. Ideas already forming in her head she moved quickly past sue and locked the shop door, at the same time turning the sign in the window to closed. "We don't want to be disturbed now, do we?" She said grinning at sue in response to her puzzled look. From across the street behind the market stall Mistress Val smiled as she watched the shop assistant close up the shop. She hoped her sub would enjoy herself. Goth girl led sue to a room at the back of the shop, it smelled musty from the a****l feed. Marie was solid and quiet, but she took no nonsense from anybody. I had seen her yelling at suppliers to the orphanage when they had tried to give her a short count, or tried dumping inferior ingredients on her. Grace wasn't anyone's idea of a pushover either. With all the knives Marie kept sharpened in her kitchen, I figured it would be a pretty even fight if those two ever got into it.During my investigation into living alternatives for the displaced boys at St. Cecelia's, I kept hearing the.