“No. And I don’t want to stay here anymore. I want to leave. I’m sick of this party. Sick of people getting drunk. Let’s go back to Putty’s. I want to leave right now.”

“I can’t leave right now. Come on inside. Don’t worry about other people.” He led me back into the crowded living room. The KA’s and their dates were becoming sweaty and wrinkled and incoherent. I saw Irise in a corner dancing with her cousin from Dunleith. A harsh yellow light filled the hallway near the front door, fell down the stairs into the darkened room where everyone was dancing. “I have to get out of here,” I said. “I’m very sensitive, Malcolm. Sometimes I can’t stand to be in crowds.”

We found my coat and my sequined scarf and my white gloves with rhinestones sewn around the cuffs and got into the car and drove back to Putty’s. “I have to leave in the morning,” I said. “How can I go home after this? How can I leave you?”

“You can come back up. You can write to me. We can write each other letters. Come sit by me. Come over here. Put your hand back on my leg.”

“I can’t leave you. I won’t be able to leave after this.” I began to cry. Terrible tears rolled down my cheeks. I held on to his sleeve. “Why did we start doing that? We shouldn’t have done it. What did we do it for? Now I have to leave you. How can I go away?”

“It’s all right. We’ll see each other again. You can come up any time you want to.” He patted my leg. He drove the car. We were going back to Putty’s. We would do it again and then I would go away and never see him. It was the same thing always with my life. If something was valuable to me it would disappear. No one would ever be there to hold me in their arms when I needed them. I would always be wandering through strange houses, through unknown rooms. Malcolm pulled the car over to the side of the street and turned off the motor and pulled me into his arms. He held me while I cried. “It’s all right, Rhoda,” he said. “We’ll see each other again very soon. It isn’t only you, you know. I’m in this too.” He held me away from him. He began to laugh, a wonderful boyish happy laugh. “Yes, it’s me and I’m in love again,” he sang in a crazy voice. “I’m in love in Georgia. Hootchy-cootchy’s in the air.”