I didn't say any more about it to mom and I let her think I had forgotten all about it but I hadn't. I talked to Eddie about it and he suggested I tal...k to one of my teachers, one that I liked real well and who treated us kids like adults. He was cool and I knew I could trust him. I told him where my dad was and I asked him how I could get in touch with him. He told me he would check into it and get back to me.It was a week later when he called me to stay after class. He told me then who to call. The previous evening they had flipped a coin to see who would go first with the nerd. Amber had won the toss although Bambi felt that she was the real winner. Neither one had met the guy in person, although he had talked to both of them, individually, over the phone.Not quite sure she believed her eyes, Bambi asked, "Are you wearing a cheerleader outfit?"Grinning, Amber said, "Yes. What do you think of it?"Bambi shook her head thinking it was such a cliché. She was beginning to regret her. C. remained a virtual prison camp, with blockades, tanks and an armed presence everywhere you looked. The procession that took Polly and Hawk to Arlington National Cemetery looked like a massive war game, instead of a funeral. The five services contributed an extraordinary amount of support to protect those of us willing to brave the potential attacks that seemed to be becoming commonplace. Sam was simultaneously inside the mountain in Colorado while all this went on. His task was to insure the. I soaped up my arms, my legs. The suds gathered in the drain by my feet.Through the marbled glass I saw Maxwell's pink figure in the doorway."So, maybe I'll come in for a nooner," he said."A what?" You know, a massage. During my lunch."So he hadn't called out. Why did he offer to spend the day before? Was he hoping I'd just skip work for him on the spot? Maybe it was just a brief fantasy of his, a lie. I knew it wasn't."Oh, okay," I said."If that's okay with you."It's not that I don't like.