Chapter 71

Nice: enjoyable, pleasant, agreeable, good, satisfying, gratifying, delightful, marvelous, entertaining, amusing, diverting, lovely, great, likable, personable, congenial, amiable, affable, genial, friendly, charming, engaging, sympathetic, compassionate, good, polite, courteous, civil, refined, polished, genteel, elegant, subtle, fine, delicate, minute, precise, strict, close, careful, meticulous, scrupulous, dry, sunny, warm and mild.

Grace has lovely down pat ... the rest of the things we use the word NICE to explain? ... not so much.

Looking at her IS enjoyable: Grace scrutinizing you? Not at all enjoyable.

But Grace is not good, or amusing, refined or sympathetic. She is seldom refined, polished or genteel. Friendly, charming, amiable are not in her vocational make up.

She is meticulous when it comes to choosing her words, she is careful in her writing, and she is close in that she can and does keep secrets.

Lucy Lou is attempting to make Grace courteous, refined and elegant but that is only effective when she is with Grace and that is seldom since Maryanne was born.

She is compassionate with cats but not with dogs ... she does not consider small dogs to be anything but cat food.

I doubt she will ever learn to be polite because she doesn't suffer fools and has no trouble telling them exactly what she thinks of them. If she has a failing that will have repercussions when she is older ... politeness will be it.

Watching Grace in Bettie Paige style bikinis ... Nice was a word that should not have crossed my mind ... but sister did cross it and left me with blueballs.

I bought a nice camera, a Zeiss Ikon, with a medium length telephoto lens and became an avid sister watcher. Grace and I are both Gymnasts, although I'm getting too tall for it.

Bettie Paige style bikinis are noted for 'slippage' and catching Grace in a nipple slip was one of my favorite pastimes. After snapping through about $200.00 worth of film on Grace from the neck down I started noticing her face. The next morning I was at the camera shop asking about portrait film but for distance photography.

"She doesn't know I'm taking her picture but she's my sister and I don't think I'll have a problem if she catches me."

"You used two hundred dollars worth of film yesterday?"

"Well ... yeah."

"Who is this girl?"

"My sister."

"You been shooting at the beach?"

"Uh huh, why?"

"I sold more film yesterday to guys taking pictures of some girl at the beach." He pulled out some finished pics ... it was Grace. Guys had been snapping my sister and I didn't even notice?

"This is your sister?"

I nodded.

"How old is she?"

"Fifteen," I said.

"Shit! I have to report this."

"Why?"

"She's underage and some of the pictures border on pornography." He was already on the phone. Very soon, there was a fat, greasy looking guy with a badge suggesting he should take the photographs and I objected.

"Don't be obstructing the law, sonny?"

"What is the law?"

"The law is what I say it is, kid."

You know how that set with me ... not well at all. "You mean the law is in accordance with the ordinances laid out by the city-county-state in such a manner that they do not infringe of the constitution of the United States."

"No, kid ... I decide. If it offends me ... it's smut."

"I need to use your phone, for a call. Here's 20 bucks ... I have to call my attorney in Michigan."

The counterman said sure and I called, "Daddy, take a dollar out of the jar." I noticed the strange look from both the cop and the clerk. "I have a jar with one dollar bills in it. Daddy takes one out so I've retained him ... I've been expecting him to take one out when I ask him to pass the salt.

"Yes, sir. Need the name of a Key West attorney not in cahoots with the locals.

"Thank you daddy. Michael Jordan... 5551555. Thanks, Oh ... we're doing alright but there's this vice cop wants to confiscate a bunch of photographs of Grace in her swimsuit. Yes Sir."