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At this point I didn't care I didn't care at all

6

Never the Same

The weather, which had been threatening all

day, finally changed for the worse About an hour or so before we had reached home, the rain came The sky burst open Sheets of wind-swept drops whipped across Jake's windshield The wipers were barely able to provide Jake with a clear enough view of the highway All aroundstrea over the monotonous sweep of the wipers and the hum of the tires on the wet pavehts on, everyone looking like he or she was driving in a panic

"We're getting a big one," Jake muttered I had curled up in a corner of the rear seat and closedthe over the roof of the car The fast-falling drops sounded htning on our right see out of the trees andfrom the houses that we rushed by

Maybe it was the end of the world I thought Maybe the events in my life were so severe Nature decided to throw in the towel and start someplace else, on another planet, perhaps, where life would evolve into people far less cruel to each other and themselves, and especially Nature

Jake tried to cheersoer, especially a tiirlfriend he had told he was an expert sailor just so she would go out with him

"Ever hear the expression Caught in the web of your own deceit? Well I turned that sunfish over three ti us both, until finally I had to confess I didn't kno to get us back to short She bawled the hell out of h water, alked the boat in You wouldn't think a kid so aard in the water like that would end up in the navy, would you? But I did

"Every tiet wide and crazy, she'd hunch

up her shoulders and screa to drown these days Captain Marvin?"

I feltuess I was never exactly a candidate for the Don Juan award The female animal has always been a mystery to me"

"It's all a mystery to me Jake," I finally said "Well,about it Princess Maybe the trick is to just push forward and leave those questions to priests, philosophers and teachers huh?"

"Maybe," I ad silence between us I said "Next tiive in to everything, Jake There's nohere"

"Hey, forget that idea You belong here just as much as anyone"