"How long have you been sitting there?" she shouted, working to catch her breath.

"I just got here," I called back to her. I slid out of the seat, grabbing the brown grocery bag and a large, bulky brown envelope. "Somehow, I knew I'd find you here. Hello, Digby."

The golden retriever wagged its tail laconically and approached me for a head-rub. The woman wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled. "They haven't thrown me out yet."

"Yet."

I held up the grocery bag and bulky brown envelope for her to see. "I brought you a present."

"Jesus," she said. "My entire career in the space program, and it all fits in one envelope. Did you watch it?"

I shook my head.

"Sure you didn't." She looked down at a beer bottle cap in the sand, caught it between her toes, flicked it up and deftly kicked it at him. "What do you think?"

"I thought you looked great," I said. "You just make a lot of goofy noises."

"That's not what I meant," she said. "How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad. You realize that everyone has seen it."

She nodded. "Everyone has seen it, and I'm screwed."

"You're not screwed."

"Rick, I am so absolutely screwed. I've been approached by every tabloid TV show on the planet, and every gossip magazine ever printed."

"Are they offering money?"