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"Could he be trusted?"

"Turned out no, he couldn’t It was fun while it lasted, though Exciting He took irl from the suburbs is rarely found Kinda opened my eyes to the world a little bit Heckuva lot more than Notre Dame did, I can tell you that"

"They say he was acalled the Nine-Thirty-Seven Mexican Mafia," I told her

"I asked hih he had friends in the gang I actually met a few of them"

"You believed him, then?"

"Well, yeah How many four-point-oh honor students do you knoho are in street gangs?"

Just the one, ht that Muffie ood at her job because she spoke easily in a way that made the listener feel co--until I said, "You stopped seeing hiraduation"

"It’s an old story, Mr McKenzie Boy ain and he refuses to anshen the girl calls hiirl knows that she’s been … discarded She is upset, the girl After a while, she gets over it She vows froentlereat surprise and happiness, are actually quite nuo to Notre Dame, then?" I asked

"No We talked about it when the acceptance letters started rolling in, but I didn’t think that was going to happen even before we broke up I just couldn’t picture Jax in South Bend, Indiana Could you?"

"Where did he go to school?"

"I don’t know Why don’t you ask his whore?"

There’s that word again, my inner voice told ht before I left for collegeup and down Grand Avenue in St Paul We ended up at a Dunn Bros coffeehouse This was early afternoon in late August,of September The place was nearly deserted, yet there was Jax Abana at a table with a woh to be his ue-hockey in front of everyone I saw Jax and Jax saw me and there was an expression on his face like he was afraid I was going to go over there and start beating on hih, life is way too short for that So I gave him one of these…" Muffie blew me a kiss and smiled "Afterward, I turned around and walked out"

"Did you ever find out who the woman was?"