…

For Henry, it’s going to be like walking into the twilight zone.

The odyssey begins at a place called Gringoes, a place both think is the last place a potential customer would want to be seen, but that is judging a book by its cover.

Both are going to soon discover there’s a lot more going on than what the eye can see.

This search starts out without a clear plan, and it seems that going in and directly asking for Michelle, which may or may not be her work name or any name for that matter, is going to raise a flag, and may have consequences.

And, Henry, having never been to such places, and despite everything he had read about them, and in that initial foray earlier, is no wiser on how to behave or how to approach the problem.

How much would the girls want just to talk?

It soon becomes a case of hot outside, the night is still simmering from the heat of the day, to hot under the collar inside.

Fortunately, Radly is known.

There are bouncers to appease, madams to charm, and girls to ask innocuous questions.

At least the Turk is not there.

Henry encounters a girl named Suzie, and it’s time for the first dance…

…

…

For Henry, it’s going to be like walking into the twilight zone.

The odyssey beings at a place called Gringoes. , a place both think is the last place a potential customer would want to be seen, but, that is judging a book by its cover.

Both are going to soon discover there’s a lot more going on than what the eye can see.

This search starts out without a clear plan, and it seems that going in and directly asking for Michelle, which may or may not be her work name or any name for that matter, is going to raise a flag, and may have consequences.

And, Henry, having never been to such places, and despite everything he had read about them, and in that initial foray earlier, is no wiser on how to behave or how to approach the problem.

How much would the girls want just to talk?

It soon becomes a case of hot outside, the night is still simmering from the heat of the day, to hot under the collar inside.

Fortunately, Radly is known.

There are bouncers to appease, madams to charm, and girls to ask innocuous questions.

At least the Turk is not there.

Henry encounters a girl named Suzie, and it’s time for the first dance…

…

…

The old sparring partners keep their distance.

Henry because he doesn’t believe Harry has changed, Harry because he knows if the old rivalry restarts, Henry will leave, and he doesn’t want to be the one to cause it.

It takes a week to break the ice, and, finally, the two can talk.  Harry knows Henry is pining over a girl, so he asks the question.

For Henry, as far as he’s concerned, that ship has sailed. 

But Harry has a piece of advice for his brother, don’t let Michelle be the one that got away.

So begins the Odyssey.

It starts with reading up on the circumstances and reasons for the existence of such places where Michelle works, and why women finish up there.  It branches into drug addiction, of course from a medical view, with his father having an excellent library of books on the subject.

He then does a tour of what is broadly called the red light district, during the day, where it seems hidden away.  Then he branches into the newspaper archives and gets a different perspective.  Research can only do so much.

After getting a call from Villiers, a relative of Michelle’s she had once mentioned to him, he goes to see him, and they talk.  Villiers says she has contacted him and asked him to pass on a message that she will contact him when she needs his help, and it is the first indication she had not given up on them.  Villiers gives him another perspective on her.

It also means that the notion he goes looking for her, to see her, or rescue her, he wasn’t quite sure, was the right one.  Villiers wants him to go and rescue her.  The question is, is she worth rescuing?

…

…

The old sparring partners keep their distance.

Henry because he doesn’t believe Harry has changed, Harry because he knows if the old rivalry restarts, Henry will leave, and he doesn’t want to be the one to cause it.

It takes a week to break the ice, and, finally, the two can talk.  Harry knows Henry is pining over a girl, so he asks the question.

For Henry, as far as he’s concerned, that ship has sailed. 

But Harry has a piece of advice for his brother, don’t let Michelle be the one that got away.

So begins the Odyssey.

It starts with reading up on the circumstances and reasons for the existence of such places where Michelle works, and why women finish up there.  It branches into drug addiction, of course from a medical view, with his father having an excellent library of books on the subject.

He then does a tour of what is broadly called the red light district, during the day, where it seems hidden away.  Then he branches into the newspaper archives and gets a different perspective.  Research can only do so much.

After getting a call from Villiers, a relative of Michelle’s she had once mentioned to him, he goes to see him, and they talk.  Villiers says she has contacted him and asked him to pass on a message that she will contact him when she needs his help, and it is the first indication she had not given up on them.  Villiers gives him another perspective on her.

It also means that the notion he goes looking for her, to see her, or rescue her, he wasn’t quite sure, was the right one.  Villiers wants him to go and rescue her.  The question is, is she worth rescuing?

…

…

At the end of this leave, Henry has to go home.  He promised his sister.  They have lunch before going there, and she questions whether he has a girlfriend and a reminder of Jane.

After enduring his sister’s driving, he’s back home.

First, his mother, second his brother, Harry, who’s changed, third, his father, who seems to accept they agree to disagree.  Lastly, he meets Amanda, Harry’s long-suffering girlfriend, and she tells him Harry has changed.

It’s too good to be true, but he stays.

Everyone is walking on eggshells.

Here’s the thing.  Henry has always used his family as an excuse to leave, rather than have to face their constant nagging, that he give up the sea, that he get over Jane, that he get a proper job and stop wasting his life.

It seems like forever that he had to endure his father’s disappointment.  Harry had once shouldered that responsibility until he went to war and came back broken.  It was just another excuse for Henry to leave because Harry had made life hell for him, simply because Henry was wasting opportunities Harry could now not have.

Until he realised that wasn’t the case, but he had to emerge from the sea of self-pity first.

Now Henry resents him because he has.  It’s an odd situation.

…

…

At the end of this leave, Henry has to go home.  He promised his sister.  They have lunch before going there, and she questions whether he has a girlfriend and a reminder of Jane.

After enduring his sister’s driving, he’s back home.

First, his mother, second his brother, Harry, who’s changed, third, his father, who seems to accept they agree to disagree.  Lastly, he meets Amanda, Harry’s long-suffering girlfriend, and she tells him Harry has changed.

It’s too good to be true, but he stays.

Everyone is walking on eggshells.

Here’s the thing.  Henry has always used his family as an excuse to leave, rather than have to face their constant nagging, that he give up the sea, that he get over Jane, that he get a proper job and stop wasting his life.

It seems like forever that he had to endure his father’s disappointment.  Harry had once shouldered that responsibility until he went to war and came back broken.  It was just another excuse for Henry to leave because Harry had made life hell for him, simply because Henry was wasting opportunities Harry could now not have.

Until he realised that wasn’t the case, but he had to emerge from the sea of self-pity first.

Now Henry resents him because he has.  It’s an odd situation.

…