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"She brought me her poetry sometimes and asked for hed bitterly

"I suppose I was"

"She loved you"

"As hteen can love her thirty-one-year-old teacher At the tihteen means she couldn’t buy booze in the States It doesn’t mean she couldn’t love you"

"It does mean I shouldn’t have loved her back"

"But you did"

"Foolishly, yes" His stohtmare of a year "Or what passed for love at the ti, loved my life"

"What happened?" Nora’s questions were as relentless as any assault

Zach took another breath He never even allowed himself to think about that time, much less tell another soul about it It was his burden alone

"I was in rade that weekend I suppose I’d complained about this in class Somehow she knew I’d be there"

"She came to your office?"

"Yes I was exhausted" Suddenly Zach was back in that craain His sleeves were rolled up; his fingers were tinged with red ink His head ached fro, the endless concentration He yawned, stretched, heard a noise in the hallway "I heard footsteps in the hall and looked up She was standing in ht Shall I assume the inevitable happened?"

"It felt inevitable She ca for me to ask her And then she closed the door behind her"

"What did she say?"

"She said, ‘I don’t have any poeht’"

"And what did you say?"

Zach exhaled "I didn’t say anything at all"

"This shouldn’t be a bad memory for you Tell me why it is"

"She was…" Zach stopped and let the silence speak for itself Behind the blindfold he closed his eyes He reainst his, how his hands fit her thighs as if they’d been ain And then he recalled her gasp of pain, that brief intake of breath that told hi in the blanks

"Yes"

"It’s not your fault that you didn’t know"

"It was ain like a knife pressed to his throat "It was my fault I didn’t stop I couldn’t stop"