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"That makes sense"

"But it would be nice to have so to call you at intimate moments," she said "There was a ave le"

"Julia," he said

"It works better in context Anyway, I don’t knohat to call you at moments like that I could try cher, I suppose, but it seeeneric"

"Keller," he said "You could callhe backed his car out of the garage and visited cemeteries until a tombstone inscription provided him with the nao He copied down the name and date of birth, and the next day he headed don and asked around until he found the Bureau of Records

"Got to replace everything," he told the clerk "I had this little house in St Bernard’s Parish, so do I have to tell you what happened?"

"I’d say you lost everything," the woman said

"I went to Galveston first," he said, "and then I headed up north and stayed with my sister in Altoona That’s in Pennsylvania"

"Seems to uess it’s okay," he said, "but it’s good to be horeed "Now if you could just let ot it all written down, haven’t you? That saves asking you how to spell it, not that Nicholas Edwards presents all that e"

He went home with a copy of Nicholas Edwards’s birth certificate, and by the end of the week he had passed a driving test and been rewarded with a Louisiana driver’s license He counted up his cash and used half of what he had left to open a bank account, showing his new driver’s license as ID A clerk at the main post office had passport application for with a money order and the requisite pair of photos, to the office in Washington

"Nick," Julia said, looking froain "Or do you prefer Nicholas?"

"My friends call me Mr Edwards"

"I think I’ll introduce you as Nick," she said, "because that’s what people are going to call you anyway But I’ll be the one person that calls you Nicholas"

"If you say so"

"I say so," she said, and took hold of his arht on calling you Keller"

She ca, then returned to her bed in the first-floor den in case her father needed her during the night Both professed regret at the enforced separation, but on reflection Keller realized he was just as happy to wake up alone He had a hunch Julia probably felt the saht, after they’d finished their love but before she slipped out of his bed, hethat had been on hisout ofin, and what’s left won’t last too er"

She said she had a little money, and he said that wasn’t really the point He’d always paid his oay, and wasn’t comfortable otherwise She asked if that hy he’d etting solove co to his dresser drawer -- "and I saw the , so I went and did it An old man with one of those aluminum walkers watched ot for a job like that I told hiot to sleep with the lady of the house"

"You didn’t tell hi up"

"Well, not all of it I really did mow the lawn"

"And did Mr Leonidas stop and watch you?"

"No, but I’ve seen him around, so I put him in the story"

"Well, he was the perfect choice, because he’d have told his wife, and his ould have broadcast it to half the city before you’d put theto do with you, Keller?"

"Oh, you’ll think of so she poured his coffee and said, "I was thinking I guess what you have to do is get a job"

"I don’t kno to do that"

"You don’t kno to get a job?"

"I’ve never actually had one"

"You’ve never--"