Another Potato admitted the sun was at the wrong angle and kept getting in his eyes. Smitty Smith thought it was too windy for football. Elmo Nichols’s shoes weren’t fitting him just right, and Ron Miller had a cramp in his calf and doubted he could run much more.

Minutes later Kate buckled her seat belt and watched the men head to their cars. “Is there anything they won’t do for beer and pizza?”

“Hey, we aren’t named the Couch Potatoes for nothing.”

“The Couch Potatoes looked like they were in pretty good shape.”

“Yeah, we’re into clean living.”

As Dave drove down Constitution, he told her about the group. “Lenny Newfarmer and I used to work together. Elmo Nichols is military. He lives in the same apartment building as Lenny. I don’t know where Smitty came from. He’s Secret Service. Howard Berk, the guy in the Notre Dame sweatshirt, is an economist at the World Bank. At least that’s what he tells us. Smitty brought him into the group.”

“Lenny Newfarmer is the short guy, right? The guy who was cold? The guy who was wearing two different-colored socks?”

“That’s him.”

“You worked with him?”

“Yup.”

“He looks like a street person.”

Dave grinned. “He’s a little eccentric.”

“Don’t suppose you want to tell me what you two did for a living?”

“Photography. Lenny’s a terrific person but a terrible photographer. We were business partners for a while. It was a disaster.”

“Photography business?”

“Mostly weddings. Some portraits. School contracts.” He shuddered. “Ugh.”

“Didn’t like it, huh?”

“I’d rather eat slugs.”

Kate laughed. “How did you manage to get into something you hated?”

“Easy. I was an art major in college. Thought I wanted to be a commercial artist. When I graduated I went to work for Adtech. Stuck it out for six years, then I decided I couldn’t handle the neon lights any longer.”

“Neon lights?”

“Yeah. I worked all day in a seven-foot-by-eight-foot cubicle on the fourteenth floor. No windows. Just neon lights. And I had to wear a tie.”

“A tie? Hey, I’d quit right there.”

“You’re laughing at me.”

“Mmmm.”

Dave carefully turned onto A Street. “It just wasn’t the way I pictured my life. Every year I felt I’d lost a little more control over my own destiny. Every year I made more money and felt like less of a success. So I quit. Unfortunately, the rent still had to be paid, so I decided to try photography. I’d done a lot of it at Adtech. It seemed okay in theory. I’d be my own boss, make my own hours, pick out my own clothes. In reality, it was boring, and incredibly time-consuming, and frustrating because there was so little creativity involved.”

“I guess I’m lucky to have found something I really loved so early in life.”