I am not impressed by the doctor’s idea for my dietary needs. “This food will be the death of me,” I jokingly say.Eve has a horrified look on he...r face. “Oh, please don’t say that. It’s bad luck to talk that way in a Hospital.”I looked at her, and there was genuine concern in her eyes. I felt chagrined for my flippant remark; this is new. I use humor to defuse situations. “Eve, I am sorry if I offended or scared you. I was trying to be funny and joke about hospital food. I was not talking about. The two anomalies now make a lot of sense.Note: Militia is the State Defence Forces and state militia. It’s not the National Guard activated to work for the regular military forces.Day of DestinyDay eight dawns like many of the previous days, nice weather, and worries about the world situation. The mid-morning briefing has some good news, the militia and military have cleared to the Gulf coast all the area west of the Alabama Defence Line. All the lines are holding and are getting set with. ”“Oh?”“Yes... I’m giving her a whipping...”“Fair enough. Revenge is sweet, eh?”“She’s getting two whippings, with a week between them, each of twenty-four strokes.”“Mmmm... sweet indeed!”“I shall have her brought up here to be flogged.”“Why not?” Quentin snapped his fingers and the attendant slave came obsequiously forward with a drink. “Oh, by the way, I was having a word with Miss Judith just now.”“Oh yes?”“Do you remember that woman I employed at Cragness. Rosalie?”Julia’s eyes flashed with. ’ It was a misconception that smiles always were signs of positive feelings. In chimpanzees, for instance, smiling always was a sign of nervousness, of trying to placate someone of higher rank in the pack. Did he consider Lisa to be of higher rank? Well, yes. It was her flat, after all, and her wages from the pet-store paid for the food. Of course it was stupid to not have done the fucking dishes, he had meant to, but that article about beavers had got him thinking and suddenly Lisa was home.