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"Ariella? Please define social capital for us?" Her large, dark eyes looked hunted, like a deer’s

Professor Hogan didn’t like hts, I could have read her feelings in the tone of her voice and her body language It wasn’t anything I’d done or said--what prompted her hostility was that I’d dropped Professor Evans’s physics class She was having an affair with Evans, and they enjoyed talking about ard students when they were in bed together Yes, I’d listened to her thoughts

"Ariella?"

"Social capital is a term for concerns that promote cooperation between two or ive us an exa to think of an example when Walker said, "You know, social capital is just words It’s jargon"

Professor Hogan turned her deerlike eyes on hie used by social scientists like on If you’re talking about relationships based on earned trust, why not say trust? If you mean common interests or reciprocal favors, why not say that? To s sound coreed with Walker Bernadette looked at hiht so, too--not because he’d come to my rescue and deflected the professor’s attention He’d had the courage to say what I thought, but didn’t dare express I didn’t mind abstract terms in my philosophy class--they were appropriate there--but used to describe Arandiose expressions of a kind of wishful thinking: that politics were governed by scientific principles The little I’d read about politics suggested that science had nothing to do with it

The class tian had the last word

"Next o to the Third-Parties Caucus in Savannah?" she said "Then you’ll see social and political capital in action?"

On the weekend after spring break ended, Walker took me on the picnic he’d promised

Over the unofficial Hillhouse uniforan iven it toour short-lived Yule celebration I’d never worn pink before, and the sweater made me self-conscious at first, but the color flattered my complexion, made me seem to blush Va ca The peach trees were in blooht pink petals and wafted their faint, sweet perfu Walker spread a blanket on the grounda blanket to her last date with Jesse I felt goose bu?" He fell onto the blanket, rolled onto his back, propped himself on his elbows--all in one movement

I rubbed my forehead and tried to clear the me in the tree blossorant air "Such a beautiful day," I said

"You’re beautiful" His North Carolina accent made the compliment sound natural, not hokey, the way it looks as I write it down Words take on newup I used to dreaed on the blanket "What do you mean--someone like me?"

He moved closer to me and lay on his back "Soreith, they were all right Some of them were very pretty And so somatic" He pronounced the word slowly, as if he liked its sound

"You must have been in love a hundred times" I heard my own voice, and for the first time it re, I realized

"A couple" His silver-blue eyes were the color of topaz Our encyclopedia at hoee of colors I wondered if anyone had ever raphic plates of huems

"Five, actually," he said "Six if you count a blind date That time I was in love for all of two hours" Suddenly he reached towardfroyptian cat" I told hioddess Bastet, who transfor eye in order to protect her father froned to protect travelers"

He placed the cat back against ain He sat up, reached into the canvas tote, and pulled out a bottle of rosé wine and two glasses

We sipped the wine, light and floral as the air around us We ate strawberries and tomato sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper For dessert we had ues--stale clouds that melted and vaporized in our mouths Walker had taken as ic tricks

When we’d finished eating, I lay back against the blanket next to him For a while we both watched the sky Walker said, "Ever wonder what makes it blue?"

I knehy the sky appeared to be blue--the color was an effect of Rayleigh scattering Air ht ths, such as red But to say that would have broken the e Mountains look blue," Walker said "It’s called Rayleigh scattering"

"I know about light scattering," I said "I thought you’d co h scattering? Without it, we’d be looking up at black space"

I thought of my telescope--I’d left it back in Sassa--and then ht Mysty disappeared, to the moment when I blacked out

"What’s the matter?" Walker leaned over me, his face full of concern He had luminous skin, tinted sand-brown by the sun I would never have skin like that, I thought "Are you thinking about that friend of yours?"

I nodded Then I realized he h on you" His hand touched led Then ere kissing

Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquillity" I will never be a poet; I can’t recollect my emotions in tranquillity, because the mo and overwhel as they were that day in the peach orchard

We kissed until our mouths hurt, and then we kissed ed, and I heard ainst Walker’s chest My eyes were closed, but, e pulled apart to breathe, I opened the I saas Walker’s neck, pale, arced aboveif I didn’t ade to sink my teeth into his skin