I pulled his hand from between my legs and stood back, telling him he needed to go and get his taxi. ‘Fuck the taxi!’ was his response and he grab...bed my hand and pulled me closer to him. ‘Why didn’t you do this two weeks ago?’ he asked but I just shrugged and mumbled something about ‘complicated’, and ‘girlfriend’. He led me by the hand, further into the dressing room and turned to face me again, his mouth on mine. I kissed him back, slower this time, my tongue darting into his mouth as he held. Gathering a couple of arm loads each, we set up in sight of the camp. The girls got their new knives and axes out and proceeded to cut out steaks, liver, kidneys. All the yummy bits.As the men saw the girls with new knives there was a lot of screaming and 'discussion' going on, aimed at the headman. He walked over to the oldest women, Lokhoni's mother, and demanded her knife.Shaking her head, she clutched it tighter to her breast. The headman smashed her over the back of the head before I could. We were headed for "my" bedroom,when the front door opened, and Allison's father came in. My "mom's"face brightened, and she took me to see him."James, you're home early." said my "mother". He grinned, and said,"When I heard my little girl was on her way home, I managed to get away,Mary." And then he picked her up and hugged her fiercely. He then cameover to me and gave me a much more gentle hug, mindful of my bruises anddressings.They led me back to the kitchen, sat me down, and began to make. By the chimney with care." 'In hopes that Saint Nicholas... '" ' ... soon would be there."Tim watched Grace turn her head to look out the window at the snow. Even in this snow-jaded part of upstate New York, this counted as a big storm. Grace's head slowly turned to the fireplace."Don't worry. Santa won't let a little snow stop him." It's snowing pretty hard, Dad." Not too hard for reindeer, honey." That's good. I had a dream about Santa last night and he told me he was going to get me what I.