CONVERSATIONS WITH THE CHARACTERS: Saydee's Viewpoint

I'm kinda like Jake in this little saga--just a bystander, so to speak. I'm another person who's known Sinbad sh'en Singh since he was a kid. Heck, he was still a kid when he met that Talltrees female--only twenty-nine to her thirty-one--but he'd lived so much and she'd barely lived at all, so he seemed a decade older.

I was sittin' in the Blue Owl nursin' a red beer that day she came in askin' for Sin. The bartender didn't want to send her to the Asteroid because he knew how Sin felt about Terran females. I was rude, no two ways about it. I looked her up and down, took another swallow of my red beer, and told him I'd like to see how much was left of her after he finished! I didn't think about how much might be left of him! She looked so innocent! How was I to know?

By the way--Saydee's the name...hookin' the game. I'm a prostie, been doin' Social Work (and I don't mean the Federation Welfare kind) since I was a kid and I'm one of the best, if I do say so m'self! I'm one of Jake's girls and Jake handles nothin' but high-class material, let me tell you. Sin was one of my Regulars--I had a big soft spot in my heart for that overgrown, feline lug and he had a likin' for big, voluptuous Abydian females with blue-white hair--until that little Natural came along and knocked those long, handsome legs of his right out from under him!

The next time I saw Mistress Talltrees (guess in view of the relationship we now have I should her Andi but I'm bein' proper), was when Sin asked me to help disguise her as a prostie so he could get her out of Old Town unnoticed. Was that ever fun! Naturals don't wear make-up--their religion teaches against "paintin' thyself to lure the desire of men," or some such drek--and it was all I could do to keep from laughin' out loud as I applied the heaviest and loudest face paint I could find--and the most provocative clothes--to that naive, little Natural body and face! Oh, ho, was that fun...!

Then, they were gone, and we heard nothin' directly for over a year--just that Sin was followin' Andi's husband, trying to catch up to his ship, that he'd gone to Ludsa, Prince of Vercingetorix-2, for help, and nearly gotten killed, then...nothin'.

When Sin came back, he was real sick-- mesothelioma pneumocosis asbestosis will do that to you--but you could see his heart had been torn out and ripped into little pieces and I knew she was the cause. He spent a lot of time in the Asteroid after that, drinkin' and tokin' and we spent a lot of time in one of Jake's rooms, but we didn't do what everyone thought. Sin loved Andi and, even dyin', had this weird idea of fidelity to her, so our days in Jake's rooms were spent with him talkin' about her--I really got tired of hearin' 'Andi this" and "Andi that"--or nappin', and me watchin' holovids! He paid me the standard rate, anyway--so there!

I was with him the day that kid Cash showed up, wondered why he hustled me away so fast and was really curious about why he left with the kid. When Jake explained what he'd guessed, I felt I'd lost somethin' really precious.... Okay, I admit it! I had this thing for Sinbad sh'en Singh that went past the usual socializer-client relationship and I think he had a few unprofessional feelin' for me, too--but they weren't strong enough to keep him from goin' back to her....

So, he's gone and I'm sittin' here in the Asteroid and it's nearly seven o'clock and time for the boys from the Federation Navy and the Merchant Marine to come pourin' in and Jake's just told me Sin's gettin' out of the Brotherhood. He's going to become Law-Abidin', can you believe it? Because of Andi.

I'm happy for him. Hope, for his sake, it works out....

(Sinbad's Last Voyage is the first novel in the series The Adventures of Sinbad, released as an e-book and paperback by Double Dragon Publishers. It has also been made into an audio book in abridged form by Books in Motion. Sinbad's Wife is scheduled for publication in June, 2008.)