“Exactly!” laughed Carter. “It’s weird, isn’t it? I mean, it’s still the middle of August. It’ll probably be ninety degrees tomorrow, but suddenly it feels like summer’s all over.”

Sheila smiled, a little sadly, he thought, and nodded as if to say that she felt the same way. Then she pushed a strand of hair away from her face and looked into the distance for a few moments, allowing Carter to study the profile of her lovely face, her slender neck, and the long dark hair falling about her shoulders.

“Got your note,” she finally said, turning back to him. “Thanks.”

“No, thank you for all those books on Italy you gave me,” said Carter in turn. “That was really nice of you to do. I would have thanked you in person, but these days it seems that I never see you anymore.”

“I know. I’ve been a little busy getting ready for France,” said Sheila. “It’s been kind of crazy. I’ve had so much to do.”

“I bet,” said Carter. “I mean, things have been crazy for me and I’m just taking a little vacation.You’re going for a whole year.”

“Sometimes going on a shorter trip can make it harder, believe it or not,” she chuckled, “at least when you’re trying to decide which shoes to pack.”

“I’m figuring on wearing sneakers most of the time,” said Carter. “Other than that, I haven’t given much thought to what else I’ll be packing.”

“Well I hope you at least took care of your passport,” she said with a hint of concern in her voice.

“Oh yeah,” said Carter. “I sent the application in way back when you told me what to do. It should come any day now.”

“Good,” said Sheila. “Now make sure you put it in a safe place when it does.”

Sheila went on to lecture him on the importance of carefully guarding his passport while he was away, for he would need it wherever he went if he wished to find a hotel room, exchange money, rent a car, or, most importantly, get on the plane for the return flight home.

“Trust me,” she warned him. “If you lose your passport, you’re in for the hassle of your life. I know people it’s happened to.”

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I’ll be careful.”

Carter stretched out his legs and settled back. He was enjoying this impromptu rendezvous, and his gloomy mood of just a few minutes earlier had lifted. Carter took another sip of his beer and nodded to Sheila’s house, from which he could hear the voices of her parents within.

“So how’s Mrs. Mahoney doing?” he asked with a grin. “She okay with letting her little girl go across the ocean all by herself for so long?”