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Show 119 to turn 'em away." I frowned with commiseration; Ross said she should take them anyhow. "No, we're off limits, and off limits is off limits." "To hell with that! There's a war on." Ross was very patriotic. "That's what they say." She sighed. "But if they caught me, they'd shut me down like that." She snapped her fingers with a crack. I jumped. I started to dislodge my partial, pulled my tongue back. "Well," she said, called back from sentiment to business. She held out her hand: "That'll be two dollars each." We reached for our wallets. She was a big woman, dressed in black, her face powdered as white as a corpse, looking just like I decided a madame should look, with a heavy sweet perfume. But I thought you paid afterwards, like in a restaurant. I'd probably read that in a book. I tongued my partial out and raced it around the course. Ross pulled out two singles. "Two for the price of one tonight?" he said brightly. She didn't smile. "I thought there was a sale on, heh, heh. Two for the price of one." "Sure. And tomorrow night we'll give it away." She plucked the bills from his hand and turned to me. I snapped my bridge back in and clutched my money tighter, suddenly afraid I was going to get taken, the hayseed, the sucker, the green kid. "For how much time?" "Whatcha mean? The usual." Ross looked embarrassed by me; etiquette was very important to him. But I had to ask: "How much is that?" I wasn't going to get conned. "Till you're done, kid. Ain't you ever been in one of these places |