Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
stairs—no slow elevators for him—in pursuit of this mission. A baby
was at stake, his scion, a cross between two future Nobel laureates.
By the time he returned to inform his wife that king- and queen-sized
beds were deemed imperialist, Roxanne was sonorously asleep.
Across the hall, Harry Bailley, alone in his hotel room, replayed
the conversation he had had with Marlena. She was flirting with
him, he was damn sure of it. So what should he do to step things up
a bit? And what about that midge of a daughter of hers? What a sur­
prise to learn Esmé was already twelve. She looked like an eight-year­
old, an elfin sylph with her pixie haircut, pink T-shirt, and jeans. She
still had a child’s body, not a hint of adolescence on the horizon. But
at twelve, the girl could take care of herself and would be less of an
obstacle to his gaining Marlena’s solitary affections. In any case,
three weeks lay ahead of them, plenty of time to figure out logistics
and ways that a prepubescent could amuse herself without the com­
pany of her delightful mother. Esmé, love, here’s ten dollars. Why
don’t you run off into the jungle and give a dollar to each monkey
you find?
Harry peered into his wallet. There they were: two condoms. He
briefly considered the other attractive single woman in the group,
Heidi, younger half sister to Roxanne. She had a certain beguiling
quality: big wondering eyes, limber legs, tumbling bunches of blond
hair. And those breasts on such a tiny rib cage—they could not pos­
sibly be real. (In fact, they were.) Harry, an expert in animal struc­
ture, had convinced himself he knew better. They pointed and didn’t
sway; he had noticed that many times. What’s more, the nipples sat
too high, as if they were doilies floating on balloons. No doubt about
it, they were not the bona fide mouthable chew toys. He had slept
with a half-dozen women with artificial bosoms, so he should know.
His friend Moff had also slept with many of the same type of in­
flated woman—a few, in fact, were the same, not surprising since the
two vacationed at the same Club Meds—and Bamboo Boy swore he
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