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like Jeannie’s mother might have wanted to promote you as her daughter’s boyfriend,” Susan said.
    “I think that was one thing she wanted,” I said.
    “And the other?”
    “I was a way to three eligible bachelors,” I said.
    “Two for one,” Susan said. “A boyfriend for her daughter and one for her. She seems in retrospect a woman who needed a man, who thought all women needed a man.”
    “She stayed a long time with one of the worst men in the world,” I said.
    “To some, a bad man is better than no man,” Susan said. “I stayed a long time with the wrong husband.”
    “I think you’ve changed since then,” I said.
    “Yes, I think so,” Susan said. “Did your father and your uncles go for dinner?”
    “They did,” I said.
    “What was that like?”
    “They went the way they went to PTA meetings and stuff,” I said. “They didn’t want to go. They didn’t expect to enjoy it. They didn’t enjoy it. But they were polite about it.”
    “Did she flirt with them?”
    “Oh, my, yes,” I said.
    “Was it embarrassing?”
    “Yes. It didn’t seem to embarrass my father or my uncles, but it embarrassed the hell out of me and Jeannie.”
    “She get drunk?”
    “Yes.”
    “Any of them ever ask her out?”
    “No.”
    “They say why?”
    “No.”
    “You have a theory?”
    “She drank too much. And she wasn’t very bright. And she was needy. My father and my uncles never much admired needy.”
    “So they just came to dinner to help you out,” Susan said.
    “Yes, and I suspect that if they thought I needed more help, one of them would have dated her. Probably Patrick.”
    “Why Patrick?”
    “He was the youngest,” I said. “My father asked me about my feelings for Jeannie. I said I liked her but not as a girlfriend.”
    “Waiting for the one?”
    “I was,” I said. “And she wasn’t it.”
    “But you might well have been it for Jeannie,” Susan said. “Girl with no stability at home, looking for someone, seeing it in you.”
    “I was fourteen,” I said.
    “And she probably hoped for the stability that your father and your uncles provided you, though I’m sure she didn’t know it.”
    “She probably did, and I tried to help her with that. But she wasn’t the one.”
    Susan smiled at me.
    “What if I’d still been married when you met me?”
    “I’d have made my bid anyway,” I said.
    “And if I hadn’t responded?”
    “I’d have waited awhile and tried again.”
    “You’ve never been a quitter,” she said.
    “No,” I said.
    We looked down as a swan boat slid under the bridge. A couple of kids in the front waved at us.
    “I would have responded,” Susan said.

Chapter 33
    We played six-man football in my junior high school. I played in the three-man backfield. Since the man who received the snap from center could not run the ball past the line of scrimmage, I played sometimes at the tailback position to pass and sometimes at left halfback to take a handoff and run. The high school coach had already been to see me about next year to be sure I didn’t go to St. Mary’s. And everybody said I was pretty good. Which I was.
    There was a dance in the school cafeteria after the last game, the week before Thanksgiving, and I took Jeannie. Even though she wasn’t exactly my girlfriend. There was cider and doughnuts and some pumpkins and some big paper turkeys and music on the speaker system. We danced a little. I didn’t really know how to dance. Neither did she. In fact, neither did anyone else in the room. Most of the boys were interested in dancing close. Most of the girls were trying not to get stepped on. Everyone bumped into each other a lot. Standing around the rim, several teachers watched us carefully to make sure fun didn’t break out in some unacceptable way.
    “Do you know any Mexicans?” Jeannie said to me.
    “Mexicans?” I said. “You mean in Mexico?”
    “No,” Jeannie said. “Around here.”
    “Yeah, sure,” I said. “Guy named Alex