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He looked at her face, at her glorious hair, and said, "Don’t you ever speak ill of yourself again It really pisses me off"

She sed, looked down at her feet "It’s just the truth"

"Bullshit" He looked back at the sun, getting lower now He said, not looking at her, "Sit down I don’t want you to miss this"

"Then you shouldn’t have said what you said at such a precioussun for sheer draether was a bang-up idea"

Molly looked at E noith the two children, the parents looking on Molly waved to them The woman waved back

She sat back down, slowly, carefully, as if she earing a dress that he could look up if she wasn’t careful She sat Indian style, her palernails were short, blunt, like his She earing black jeans and black half-boots Her vivid yelloind-breaker was billowing out behind her as the stiff offshore early-evening winds swept in

She didn’t look at hih to the water now to turn it a gleaolden red "Have you ever been ht "Yes, when I enty-two and just starting law school"

Her voice cynical, she said, "You knocked her up?"

"Nope She was ato be shipped out to sood-awful place in Africa We wanted to be married just before she left"

"What happened?"

"We did well together She was the one always on the road, off to someplace I’d never heard of, but it worked out okay She wanted to wait on kids and I was agreeable Then it was all over" He found his body tensing, beco clammy, just as it had that day he’d walked out of the courtroom, elated because he’d just won an important case, only to have onefor him He’d known, oh yes, he’d known in that instant that Susan was dead

"She was killed when her helicopter crashed in the Kuwaiti desert at the end of the Gulf War in ninety-one She would have shipped home the very next week" "I’m sorry," Molly said, "I’m so very sorry" "Shit happens"

She laid her hand on his arm "No, don’t act like a er in his voice as he turned to her "Why not? At least now I can sound all flippant andti or bawling And you, of all people, Molly, know that shit does happen"

She didn’t understand how he’d felt, given her own experience with e She said, "Youtio, Molly Fact of the matter was that we didn’t really know each other all that well She was gone too much of the time When she was hoain We talked, sure, but for the life of me, I can’t remember many conversations And, as I said, I know more about you than I did her For example, I don’t remember how she squeezed a tube of toothpaste, whereas I know that you flatten the tube in the htwear Susan really preferred You love floaty silk nightgowns I saw you rubbing the one you couldn’t help but pack, you loved it so much But with me around you wear only those cotton jobs that start at your throat and end at your toes I never knehat her favorite breakfast

was You like to eat Grape-Nuts unless you’re on the ran- and I do mean that literally She liked ether, but I can’t re You licked your chops, Molly I don’t think you once got up to reat

"Isn’t that strange? To be married for nearly three years and not really know your ain, then over at E one of the kids said After the ht under his nose, he automatically checked on her every fifteen seconds, or less Usually it was less, especially after San Francisco

"Maybe, but I never knew Louey all that well either Like Susan, he was gone most of the time Unlike Susan, when he was hohed "Louey’s dead It’s just over a week It seeer Goodness, it feels as if I’ve known you forever"

"That’s because we got thrown together in the same pot with the lid plunked down and lots of heat No time-outs"