Annabelle met Phoenix at the tennis club while wearing her short white tennis skirt and white tennis shoes. Her hair bounced around her face in natural curls, as she attempted to return his shots. She did so admirably, never complaining or scowling, but ultimately, she lost the match to Phoenix.

Phoenix fell in love with her immediately. Falling in love was a bit of habit for Phoenix. He was never broken hearted though, he just good naturedly moved on to the next thing. As did his various lovers, who remembered fondly their time with him and forgot any promises that he made them. Everybody understood that when Phoenix said forever what he meant was until next time.

"Babe," he said to Annabelle "You smell amazing, like the smell of crushed rose petals laid out on a bed and you taste amazing too, like cinnamon, hot but suitable for a sweet time"

"And you smell good too," said Annabelle "Like a lion who tosses his mane on the prowl for antelope." It was a bit of mystery how Annabelle knew how a lion on the prowl for antelope smelled, likewise it was a bit of mystery why a proud male lion in charge of a pride would be doing the hunting.

"Do you know how good it feels to hear your voice?" he said with a bit of a growl.

"I can only imagine, but you will never know how good it feels to be safe in your strong, strong manly muscular arms" purred Annabelle in response.

"Safe?" said Phoenix with a question in his voice "You think I am safe?"

"No" said Annabelle "You are dangerous, you are the most dangerous man I have ever met. But when I am with you, I know that you will never use your strength to hurt me and that makes me feel safer than I ever felt in my life."

"I will kill any bastard who tries to hurt you and that's a promise" Annabelle turned her face to him and looked him deeply in the eyes before turning her face to the left.

"Don't be ashamed of this passion that you feel, running through your body right now. You belong with me; we are destined to be together at this moment in time," Phoenix rumbled his voice into her ears.

He took her by the chin and turned her face back to him "My word, there has never been a more beautiful woman in the world. I don't know what I did to deserve you."

"I think that you are wrong," a tear had formed on the top of her cheek "It is not you who are undeserving but I. I am not a good enough reward for you. After all, you have done for my city, for my people. Before you came I didn't even know that we could dream of getting rid of the Mamlish, then you came into my world and realised that it takes courage and bravery but we can dream big."

The couple kissed and the camera panned out, fireworks filled the sky with every colour in a child's crayon box and a big band bashed their cymbals.

The camera showed two little girls who were hiding through the entire scene sighing.

****************

Growing up, James didn't go out much. He did have some friends and would spend time with them but most of his time he spent alone either playing games or writing. His main social activity was church and church related events.

During the post sermon tea time, he would try to have reasonable intellectual conversations with the adults while Alicia would find her way into a pack of girls. "James," she called out "Come tell Kathy your joke."

James reluctantly stood up and walked across the room, dragging his feet as he moved towards them. "What joke?" James asked. He didn't like being made a spectacle of and this seemed to happen every time that his sister was around.

"You know the one that you told your friends last night" said Alicia, her hand on his shoulder. "He is so funny, we were all laughing, I snorted water through my nostril. You'll see, you are going to land up on your asses and you won't be able to stand up, because he is so funny."

"Come on James, tell us. Alicia showed us all the pictures of you in the suit that you wore for the dance. We all loved the little bowtie." James thought that the girl who was speaking might have been Kathleen, but he could never tell because his sister's friends all looked alike and sometimes, they seemed to change names.

"Did you remember how in the one photo he put rabbit's ears behind Alicia, he is so cheeky," another one said, maybe her name was Rebecca.

"Come on James, tell them the joke," egged Alicia on. "They are all waiting for it"

"I'm still not sure what joke you are talking about?" James said.

"You know the one, the one with the elephant; everybody loved the one with the elephant."

James stood there, looking awkward. "Come on! James tell us" Kathleen said.

"So, James, last night, came home with his little friend Andrew and while he was sitting at the counter, he suddenly pipes up" Alicia was telling the story now. "Andrew, how do you tell if there is an elephant in the fridge?"

"My mother tells the same joke," the girl who was possibly Rebecca said.

"Are you sure that it is the same joke, Rachel?" asked Alicia "There are a ton of silly elephant jokes, but this one that James told was hilarious."

"No, the one my mother told was a little dorky, I always felt embarrassed by her jokes." said Rachel after all.

"Any case James, finish the joke off."

"How do you tell if there is there is an elephant in the fridge" James said as fast as he could, he imagined the words pushed together without spaces between them. "You check to see whether there are footprints in the custard."

Laughter erupted, the girls laughed and laughed and laughed, encouraged, James said, "Why did the elephant paint its toenails red? To better hide in the strawberry Jam."