Keeping pace with Cindy mostly for the sake of the conversation ... and, admittedly, a vested interest in waterproof toys, Ilde shrugs. "I had a rabbit," a sixteenth birthday gift from her godmother, who also paid for the tattoo around her thigh, "but nothing for years."

Something about the way she says that is telling, a wrong note in her voice that she can't make sound casual, but she's not discussing the years she spent in captivity here and now. Today is a good day, and she's just not, so she breezes on by it and figures Cindy (Cynthia, as far as she knows) is like as not to let it pass, "I thought I'd try something new. You know. When in Rome, fuck as the Romans do."