The full moon is a certainty.

Well, although Andrea had developed a yen for him that was not a Japanese Yen, the Aussie couldn't be happy until he paid the Texan back in his own currency. Being from down under, he knew a thing or two about the South end of a steer... they have them in Australia, and he was wondering what (if anything,) this Texan had been feeding his Longhorn bull. He didn't have a true fact that couldn't be proven, but he had false facts aplenty, and they were not in short supply. He decided to show his own fair mindedness and lack of prejudice to Andrea, and braced the...

"What exactly DO you do for a living?" he asked abruptly. For her own part, Andrea knew that the 5ts didn't pay - that would have been paying for free, and a true Texan doesn't do ANYTHING for free. What could he possibly do to keep body and soul together? Sam had lied about his name, but in a pinch a false identity can be supplemented with the truth, and so he answered directly, but with some concern. "I work in a money laundry," he explained, laying all his cards face up on the table before his friends. "Texan currency has so much linen in it that it's the next best thing to denim, and all I do 6 weeks out of the year is launder money. It's not too different from working on an oil rig." Andrea beat Melbourne to the question, "And THIS pays enough for everything else you do, all the rest of the YEAR?" she cried. She was not as advanced in the field of prevarication as the Australian was, and incredulity was not a matter of choice for her. Melbourne was chuckling quietly in the background. "Shall I tell her, or will you?" he asked. "By all means YOU do the honors," the Texan growled. As Andrea turned a hunted gaze upon him, Melbourne illuminated the deceit. "He helps himself to the product while he's laundering it. Probably makes all his purchases by money order, and pays taxes on exactly what they pay him at the plant," the helpful true Southerner supplied. While Andrea did a fair impression of a goldfish, the unflappable Australian took the initiative back into his care.

He had established that the Texan worked, and so he returned to his original course of questioning. "In Australia, do you have any idea which way is up on the map?" The alert Texan was not easily accommodated by being taken in. He rather intended to liberate himself, and answered a question with a question: "Away from the center of the earth?" he ventured. His opponent was not to be so easily dissuaded, and pursued him in a quid pro quo. "In TEXAS, which way is up on a map?" "Well that's easy as Apple Pie... NORTH," came the confident reply. No sooner had he spoken than his face informed his brain that there was an Apollo 13 moment near his ears, and he took his seat suddenly. He truly did not know what the convention was, South of the Equator, and his entire fiction that Texas was the center of the Universe collapsed.

Having made his point Melbourne offered Andrea his arm. "Shall we exeunt?" he asked. Unaware of Shakespeare's requirements, she assented, and they disconnected the pickup and took off for a nearby IHOP, leaving Sam behind to sort himself out. They found each other's company enchanting, and their solitude was much improved.