Phraselet No. 135

"Why don't you go with him?" she said pointedly to Vanese.

"Why don't you go to hell?"

"Ladies, ladies, please," I said, possessed all at once of a weird good humor, "come on now. If you must fight, at least use your fists."

Randy laughed, bug loud resonant horse laugh and I smiled, as much at the sound as my joke, my mood, twisted lips and Vanese smiled back at me, an astonishingly sweet smile that took all the wariness from her big eyes. Even Nakota smiled. And then we were all laughing, the whooping laugh of relief, the way you laugh when they show you the X rays and it's nonmalignant, for now anyway, and the doctor has a small but distinct booger hanging out of his nostril and you and everybody else in the room can see it and as soon as he leaves you laugh your ass off; like that.

- Kathe Koja, The Cipher