"Here we go, more shit!" Olaf sneered, then chuckled as he wagged his big blond head.

"Let's see you explain your way out of this one, yum-yum boy? Just where the hell you been to meet any American girls, eh?"

"Right here! Where in the almighty Goddamned hell do you think?" Kye swore, too angry to say more as he started toward the front gate to the street.

"Hey, wait a minute, Kye! Where are you going?" the husky teenager called after him, his lustful interest really fired this time by the other's insistently honest tone. "Come on back and tell me about it! I believe you, no crap…"

"No crap is right!" Kye snapped, for the first time feeling he had the upper-hand with this big oaf he no longer was sure was his friend. He would have to walk to the park and think about that, for friends were very important to him, such as Captain Mark and Mrs. Dianne. In Saigon, one always was skeptical of so-called comrades. Too many times they would turn out to be just that… the enemy… but he had thought all American were buddies. Now, he didn't know what to think…

Dianne had slept, but not restfully. She had dreamed insensible, sordid things which she barely remembered upon awakening to a brilliant sunshine. Evidently, she'd cried in her sleep, too, for her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed when she'd opened them. The soothing effect her midnight drinks had taken was long gone, though, the warm glow of a new California day helped. She immediately thought of her obscene performance with the young boy, but forced herself not to dwell on it. Then Mark and the mysterious "whatever" surrounding him raced into her mind and she bolted from the bed, remembering she intended to question Kye.

Quickly, she splashed her face, brushed her hair and slipped on her robe, going over in her mind how she would approach and draw the information she wanted, as well as the pledges she would insist he make. She trembled nervously as she walked into the kitchen, the thought of facing him for the first time since… since their sinfully forbidden act the night before having its full impact on her.