I sense that they are somewhat threatened by me - probably because on some primitive level they realize that I, as yet, have not sold out. I think I have eliminated other reasons, the obvious being: I am not that good looking that other women are threatened, nor rich that they envy me. I am outspoken and have traveled a bit. I truly think it is that sense that I am still very much alive.

All this leads me to horror story of the week in the next column. 

These are the islands of the Maldives. A place so beautiful (close to India on the map) that words cannot effectively describe the experience. My dear friend Liat took me with her and her mom two years ago. 

The Maldives are hauntingly alluring. 

I was chased by a baracuda while diving and it bit me on my flipper. No one believed me until they saw the teeth marks.

Only if you were spaced out on some heavy stuff could you imagine the vast underworld wall to wall with the most amazing fish in the world. 

The Maldivians have their own international plane which I believe is rather busy during the tourist season.

We stayed at Kuramati. The sea water comes within several feet of your hotel room door. Sarongs are the given attire and suntanned tourists the necessary evil.

When life get me down, I drift back into my memories of this place.

I think perhaps God kept the Maldives away from the world so we could have an idea of how the world once was.

a

'You have to leave now. Your papers are not in order'. 

 I had been enticed from a very secure position. I stood numbly for a moment and then requested an explanation. None was forthcoming. I rushed off to my immigration lawyer who became so incensed that she called the company's head office and kicked up a 'shin-dig'. Result was: I was called back to work for another day. The INS office told me to go to Memphis to try and get some temporary something or another. I drove (in a very old car with no air conditioning and close as damn-it-is-to-swearing- about-to-expire tags) in over 100 degree heat all the way there only to be told that I had been approved and I should wait for my papers to arrive. So who knows what will happen tomorrow when I go back to work. It's all a bit stressful.

However, there is a plus side to this...

My new boss has been fabulous and a hero standing up for me and endeavoring to make the horror go away. My friend, Angela, has been warm and supportive.  

The low life swines fired me. From a promising future straight into the pit o' hell they flung me. No letter of apology, only glee and corporate greed. I put the evil eye on them. They were indeed unjust and unfair and when I returned a month  later  with the proof they had requested and along with their urgings for me to reapply the cool, evasive message was 'sorry the position has been frozen'.  This I know to be a lie.  

Scuba diving off the islands of the Maldives at times like this.is much more soothing than fighting the extremely toothy sharks at Cricket Communications.

Another Tale