He looked as though he was happy to see me, she would write later in her diary, and altho’ I dreaded what he might say, I found myself holding my breath, almost I guess you could say nervous, beyond descrip.! Would he have an explanation for all the strange coincidences of late, for example running into him in these circumstances (how could he have known that I would be at the market at that time, and yet didn’t it seem p-haps suspect that he of all people would be the one I would literally physically bump into)? And would he finally, now, speak to me, to tell me why he had been winking at me across whatever room in whatever circumstances for more than a month, ever since the Betrayal was known to All? Was he laughing at me, pitying me? Or was it something more literally fantastic? (& for heaven’s sake, what in the world was I hoping for, given the present, i.e., broken, state of my heart?)

“No, it was me—me entirely—I wasn’t watching,” he said.

She didn’t know what to say. As usual.

“Are you heading home?”

“Yes.”

“Can I walk you?”

“Of course, yes,” she said, too quickly, then smiled.

So they fell into step together, turning down Jefferson and shortly leaving the bustle of downtown behind them. Birds hopped across the walk, fluttered up to the bare branches of trees, chirped and sang. April seemed full of possibility.

“So,” he said, “I heard you’re going to be a cadet nurse.”

“Yes,” she said. “At the University of Minnesota.”

“That’s great,” he said. “I’d like to have you for a nurse—or—” She looked up in time to see him flush. He recovered, grinned. “I mean, I’m going in the Army,” he said. “Just got my orders yesterday.”

Elissa was taken aback by his news. It wasn’t surprising, exactly—all the boys were going into the service, and many from the class of ‘43 had left already—but, to think, the class’s sensitive Romeo! In the Army! “Will you be going soon?”

“Right after graduation.”

“I’m glad you don’t have to leave right away.”

“You are?”

She blushed. The odd angles of his hair were quite adorable. And those eyelashes!

“I’m glad I bumped into you,” he declared. “I always see you at school, but I don’t ever get to talk to you.”

“Well, I never knew you wanted to,” she protested. Perhaps too vehemently, she would describe it later.

“Well, I did.”

“What did you want to talk about?” she challenged him. She was in no mood for dissembling, after all the times he had winked at her.

“How about—Well, how about a date?” he said. “Friday night.”