She was chewing her nails down to the quick the whole time he was backing it off the deck.”

And I said, “She’s got a lot riding on Friday.”

And Gary said: “She asked if we had a premium car wash.

I told her we’ve got the coin-op by the laundromat.”

Part Thirty-Seven: The Sixth of June

Graduation was in the gymnasium because the forecast was wrong, and the room was about four degrees too warm, and it smelled of floor wax and about two hundred mothers’ perfume.

I sat on the vocational staff row with David Pulaski, nine days back from leave.