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I SAT IN ONE of thewhy the Millenniu me into some million-dollar silver-metal woman

Well, iven the current price of silver on the stock market

Dr Torres hadn’t had " with the bone wouldn’t have caused menstrual pain, but that she couldn’t recoiven the pressure that puts on the pelvis Otherwise, I was fine

The faured it was hiding out a the plaits of my hair the kindly nurses had made

Quicksilver sat on the floor beside me, my palm on his thick-furred wolfish head

Ric and Quick had been waiting in Dolly for me and Helena to leave that last doctor’s office

"Delilah, your hair," Ric had said anxiously "The braids What about--?"

"Home, James," Helena had cut hi woot the idea fast

"Love the look," he said, and then drove us back to the Thunderbird Inn without coy rurass finally had found an occasion to get otten out and, trailed by Quicksilver, unlocked the motel room door When I turned back, I saw that the others had remained in the car

"You relax here on your own for a while, Delilah," Helena suggested "I’ Ric for a drink"

"Banished to the bar again?" he objected, his hopeful expression turning anxious

I wanted to joke that I was the one who could stand being taken out for a drink, but Helena shut up her foster son with one tough-as-a-nail-gun look and the comhtened him about the bizarre state of my insides

No one could stop Quicksilver fro, "I know, I know Just be patient"

At least dogs didn’t need to have the messy facts of female anatomy explained to them

Helena supposedly knehat stressed people required I wasn’t so sure she did now Was there anything worse than being stuck alone in a Wichitathat alien spawn had set up shop in your very guts for so, successfully, to put to rest had punched a literal hole in h this was summer, the room felt cold I ran my hands down hs I rockedthe roup hoainst an to chatter anyway It wasn’t the temperature in thethe rare but perfect Midwestern , betweendrew s suspended from a wire curved like spectacle frames over my ears

At least the silver fa on me at the s At least my "rape" had been medical and institutional At least what had been done to me without consent had been done to hundreds of thousands of other women by their own request So I was not as alone as I felt It’d probably hurt them too, but they’d knohat to expect

Quicksilver whi that "hang dog" look Gosh, I didn’t want to bring anybody doith --who cared to stand by s I’d survived here in Wichita, and in spades in Las Vegas lately Feeling sorry for myself had never worked It was time to think, not feel

What if, over the years …I really needed Maybe it was a pre–Millenniuift" Maybe it was the source of s in h therabbed" and created the silver familiar from Snow’s lock of hair as an external extension of itself Maybe it had become my inner ar I sat there in the demi-dark with thecurtains drawn, but eventually a knock came on the door

I looked around The perky patterned coone Still shivering, I went to the door peephole

I spotted a baseball cap with eaudy coleus leaves and tiger lilies for a New Orleans funeral Undoing the chain lock, I confronted a gawky delivery boy obscured by baskets of tissue and greenery

I could now read the fancy script on the cap: Flowers ’n’ Bowers

"Kin I put some of this stuff down, e"

I swept the door wide and stepped back

He quickstepped to the table by theand relieved his forearreenery and a tall bottle of chaht so it wouldn’t fall over, he played eyeball-tennis with the occupants of the roos and Quicksilver and n that you got this stuff, uh, e is taken care of"

He produced a receipt pad and a pen An overbearing odor of roses was rising like swamp miasma I hesitated to take custody of the lot

"You, ah, alone here, ma’am?" he asked nervously

"I’m not scared, if that’s what you ne can be tough to pop I kin jest get that, ah, started for you, if you want"

I realized his roaure

"I can handle a chareat at extracting things that are in ulped si toward the door

"Jest our friendly Flowers ’n’ Bowers super-service,the dead bolt and restoring the chain lock as soon as his skinny ass was out of the way

Meanwhile, Quicksilver was using his supersensitive nose on the array of baskets and audibly sniffing I joined hine was a no-naed to maneuver the cork out with a pop that rowl

Two ste so was beyond cheesy, but whoever had sent this knew that any kind of bubbly right noould unravel the knots in my neck and shoulders as if they were ulped the first chintzy glassful of slightly sour chane and poured another

The showy flowers surrounding the potent posy of tea roses weren’t scented, so I set theer to probe any i mine

There was another bottle of bubbly, this one full of pink powder

I i, foaot out, wrapped in a toith my braids clipped atop my head, the safety chain was off its slide I didn’t want to knoho and how, but Quicksilver was obviously out on patrol and Ric aiting on one of the plastic chairs He’d taken off the visiting-social-services tie, and I liked the view through his top three open shirt buttons Also his sets way too lost in her head … and yours and mine I owe her respect, but I don’t buy that ht"

I was speechless "She thought I needed to be alone here all night?"

"She thought you needed to be left alone," he said "Dios, Del I ca partners tonight, no en"

"Virtual Virgin," I corrected "That’s … really noble, Ric" I went to sit on his lap,to my shoulders as the savvy familiar slithered down into position as a slender ankle bracelet "You responsible for the hoe, hombre?"

"Cheesy," he ad him a peck on the lips

"And I do like the braids Muy exótico" He diployptian wig and our second erous, latest adventure

"Mmm" He nuzzled my neck "You’re so warm and soft and scented"

"You’re so warm and hard and drenched with virtuous lust"

"I just want to co more I swear"

"It’s not like you to fall short in the romance department, Montoya," I drawled

He seemed surprised, but htmares of the last two days had shot into the distance like a fey ht I’d needed so to ease ne and a fierce willfulness to be taken extree of

"Look, Ric What I was put through years ago was inexcusable, painful, and trauined a lot worse than an insensitive bureaucracy resorting to the sexual double standard"

"Delilah, are you sure you’re all right with it?"

"Not … yet, but it has nothing to do with us I’ain? No sack tiot the et me over on my back for the first time and crush ed before his lips hushed rowled, he rasped, he husked, but what he did was say nothing, just nature start and stop of our erotic journeys The moment they touched my damp skin I folded like a bad poker hand onto the trinket-laden bed He was already there, and rolled ary, so salty, so sharp," hepartners for now, I swear"

"With benefits," I said, laughing softly until ere silent but not still, lued to his neck scar, until he came and I fell asleep frone, satisfied There was nothing anybody had done towhat I wanted to be in the future

I AWOKE SLOWLY, still habitually lying onthe bed Ric ake, watching ht fro the sharp lines of his forehead, nose, and cheekbones He belonged on a twenty-foot-high pillar in my particular te on s had scissored open while I slept and he’d pushed a leg between thes set ?" I asked

"The ht Now shhh I’m busy"

He sweptme onto ht frisson of panic I felt at the position was … fleeting