you know what’s funny? he hit on me, my teacher did, on one of those trips, yeah. not on that one, this was at the maritime center a couple months later…scared the shit out ’a me! i didn’t even know what he was doing at first—i mean, okay, i did, but i was, like, thirteen—and that’s just not what you’re expecting at that age. well, maybe it never is…he came up behind me at the observation tank, right, where they’ve got the sharks and everything, see, this other teacher was with us and she wanted to take the rest of the children on down the passageway—’cause they have a place where you can handle different sea things, shells and crabs and stuff, and the shark tank has this dark room connected to it so that you can stand there and see without a glare all over the windows, and some kids were sort ’a scared—but i was always interested in sharks and all that, i was. you know, you have to pick a vocation in seventh grade, they make you do that in junior high, on this “career day,” right? and i chose “marine biologist.” i did. out ’a all the other kinds of things they had there, i picked that one, ’cause i love the water, always have…so, my teacher said it’d be okay if i stayed and watched, we’d catch up later… (BEAT) well, i’m keeping my eye on this one big hammerhead, that’s a species of shark—you probably knew that—and he’s darting in real close to the glass, this hammerhead is…suddenly, i feel all this weight up against me. my teacher is pushing me forward with his body, up onto the observation windows, and i can’t move. he never said anything while it was happening, i mean, to me—i could hear him whispering something about the “tragic nobility of sea creatures,” some shit like that—and all i can see, i can’t turn at all, the way he’s got me held there, all i can see is this shark, the one i’d been watching, coming out of the murk and sweeping past me, again and again…and it’s not ’till he’s right on top of me, and turned each time, that i can see his eye. he turns past the glass at the last second and his eye just sort ’a rolls back all white as he passes…fuck, that was scary, i’ve never forgotten it. that feeling, his weight on me, and watching as that hammerhead just kept circling around… (BEAT) well, what the hell, it’s easy to scare a kid. right?

she plays a moment with the butt of her cigarette in the ashtray.