Narth eye slits glowed visibly with a dark red light. “You act in a highly illogical matter and your mind is clouded with self delusion of imagined ...importance.”Swybin held his hand in pain and growled in open hatred. “My father will have you hanged for this. No one disobeys an Admiral. You will all hang.”“Enough of this.” I yelled. “One thing is certain you are not an Admiral. You are a cadet like me and everyone else here. I promise you if you ever raise your hand in violence against an. He was surprised when Julie opened the door. Her face was drawn and sad, her shoulders were slumped, and she didn't look him in the eye."Hi, Van," she said tiredly. "Come in."'That's weird, ' he thought. 'She should be sizing me up for a body bag.'He followed her back to her bedroom, where Julie climbed on the bed and sat leaning against the headboard. She picked up her teddy bear and clutched it to her chest."So... how'd it go?" asked Van cautiously."Fine," she said lugubriously. "I did what. You can laugh at me if you want." Nonsense," Liz exclaimed. "It's perfectly understandable. The firstthing I wanted to do was walk, and so the first thing you wanted to dowas be a lady." Thanks, Liz," Pearl said. "I've been worrying about this moment,thinking that you girls would think I was silly." Of course we don't," Liz said. "Right Lucy?"Lucy looked up, caught staring at what looked like a red nightie. Sheblushed. "Um, no, of course not," she stammered. "I mean, it's notlike we will. Obviously, game tickets aren't available yet, and I'll look into getting those later." You ... are incredible," I told her, at a loss for words. Wrapping her up in my arms, I continued, "What an amazing gift. And for me, the best Christmas gift I'll get this year is the one I've got my arms around right now."We got to talking excitedly about the trip, which after all, would be our second trip to Florida in a three-month period. Even though we'd be leaving for the first Florida visit in a few.