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"Bobby Fisher and Eliza--what did you think about that? You kneanted her to go out with hied "Oh that Fact is, Eliza couldn’t have cared less Bobby didn’t really come into her line of focus, you knohat I mean? She put up with him What she really wanted to do was drop-kick hi"

"Do you think Eliza really disliked Bobby thathim down?"

"Who knows? When he finally ran out of there on Friday, she looked at me, rolled her eyes, and said, ‘Well, maybe that’s the last time I’ll have to tell him to take a hike’ "

"So she never really took him all that seriously"

"No," Fleurette said "The only person she took seriously was Justice Califano"

"So what did Danny say to you before you told hi really, just so like ‘Women and shoes, that’s all you think about’ Then he said he was going to see a foreign fil--listen, Danny was always on the "

"Except this time it did, didn’t it?" Ben said

Before Ben and Callie left her by the Vietnam Wall, next to her uncle’s name, Ben remembered to ask Fleurette what color her toenail polish was last Friday She looked startled, then laughed "It’s called ‘I’m Not Really a Waitress Red’ "

Callie said to Ben as they drove away, "I wonder if her father e here every year like Fleurette does"

"Somehow I don’t think so After all, he wasn’t six years old when he first cah she denies it"

"Yes, I think you’re right"

CHAPTER 26

GEORGETOWN WASHINGTON, DC