"You're wrong," Tony interrupted. "You give an outstanding show and much more than that. I wonder if the so-called 'respectable' audiences would have the background to appreciate what you're expressing."

      She looked at Jason. "Your friends are from the beach for sure, aren't they?"

      Jason tried to suppress a smile and nodded. "If they weren't I would have told you."

      "What is it with this beach anyway?" Tony asked.

      "There is something significant going on that I haven't been able to put into focus yet," said Jason, "something I've been racking my brains to figure out."

      "That's why it is called 'Rack' Beach," I added with a grin.

      "Oh, give it up, Pete," said Tony, "that was a bad one."

      "No, I like it," said Lora, "I've been racking my brains too. You guys are lucky to have caught me at one of my better numbers. While I can't put words to what it is that's happening at the beach, I find it possible sometimes to express the feeling through dancing."

      "I can second that motion," said Tony, raising his glass.

      "But that still doesn't provide a definite answer," she replied.

      "I think I can help you with that answer," I said to Lora quietly. "Your dance reflects your self-love. It reflects the wonders you find in your soul. That is your art, your music. That's an awareness of your beauty as a person. It all becomes expressed together in your dancing. It becomes drawn out from its recesses to be put into expression as an outflow of your humanity. I suspect that you have a wealth of wonderful human aspects that you love yourself for. And the beach adds to that. It adds a greater sense of honesty with oneself about the riches we all have to love ourselves for."

      Lora didn't reply a word. Instead, she got off her chair, came over to me and answered with a long drawn out kiss.

      Tony and Jason cheered.

      Tony nudged me. "I bet Steve can't top what you just said to Lora," said Tony and began to grin. "You should call Steve to find our what he would add. Also mention to him what Lora had said about her dancing and her audience. Ask him what he thinks?"

      "Right now?" I said. "No, Tony!"

      "Why not?" Tony looked at his watch and mumbled something to the effect that it must be about 10:30AM in Leipzig. "It would be OK to call."

      "Leipzig, East Germany?" asked Jason. "You mean you are going to telephone all the way to Germany, just for that?"

      I nodded.

      He looked amazed.

      Tony leaned over to him, pointing at me. "This guy has access to Uncle Sam's international telephone network," he whispered. "Pete is a US government agent!"

      "A spy?" Jason replied.

      I shook my head.

      Tony nodded.

      Poor Jason, he didn't know what to think now.

      Instead of settling the confusion, I got up, went to the pay phone and started dialing.

      I noticed Jason watching me with his eyes and mouth wide open. He must have noticed that I didn't use coins and was dialing a great number of digits.

      Tony was right, Steve was at home, and it was 10:30 A.M., just as he had said. But Steve didn't understand my question at all. So I had to go back to the very beginning and tell him the whole long story about our beach project, about the air show, and finally, about Lora.

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Stories about War from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche