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Show /s¥ up to you." |^u\AAgU«^«eve winked. "Aye, a y e , " I said, and he saluted again and I returned i t snappily, at half mast by then, lower. I stood there and watched the firm, unjiggling buttocks of the r e t r e a t i ng horse. Then I heard something else which at f i r s t I couldn't believe, the sound of laughter; wild, s h r i l l , h y s t e r i c a l laughter. Marion was coming down from the dunes, staggering, s l i d i n g and slipping, l i s t i n g badly to port, not so much drunk as dizzy with laughter. She held one hand over her stomach for the pain of i t , and her j e l l i e d flesh so set in motion by laughter, doing the shimmy, set me off too. My god we laughed, bayed the moon with laughter, high on i t. "You saluted him!" "I was covered." That made her bend over with laughter. She wiped the tears from her face. "Oh, oh, that h u r t s . My god, you looked g r e a t ." "You can laugh. Running away. Running from sharks, from horses, from s a i l o r s ." "Not from s a i l o r s , " she said, not running. "And i t ' s no f a i r , you being dressed when I haven't got a s t i t c h . " She plucked my hat off by the b i l l and sailed i t up the beach. "Now were equal." "But not the same." "I thought you'd scare that horse. With t h i s . " She encircled me with her hand and I rose to meet her. "I thought this would make that horse b o l t ." "You don't know horses. Takes a lot more'n that just to get 'em i n t e r ested, let alone scare 'em." "I know horses . " "Does it scare you?" It wanted to be saluted again. "Scared stiff," she said, closer, raising her face to be kissed, friendly with lust. |