“Come right now. I’ll be walking down Halley Street in the direction of the campus. Come as fast as you can.” I hung up the phone and put my billfold back into my pocketbook and took my gloves out of my pocket and put them on. I pushed open the door leading out onto the dark street. I began to walk. I was thinking about hamburgers. I was thinking about juicy hamburgers with lettuce and tomato and mayonnaise and mustard and salt and pepper. I was thinking about chocolate milkshakes and how much I loved to suck them down through straws. I was going to kiss old Hap Dumas until he didn’t know what day it was. I was going to kiss and neck and let him put his hand on my breast and then I was going home and write some poems about it. I was going to get out my dictionary and find some great words to go in poems. Words like dark and rain and omnipotent and transported. Like blood and breath and food and cerulean blue and sapphires and atomic theory. Words like die and live and profound and mysterious and art.

Chapter

9

The next week I moved into the Chi O house. A girl from Anniston had gone home so there was a small single room available on the second floor. I piled all my stuff in the car and hauled it up the stairs and put it away. Now my dream had come true and I was living in the Chi O house. The first night I was there my big sister in Chi O, Donie Marsh, called me into her room for a chat.

“I think you’re gaining weight, Rhoda,” she said. “I want you to start watching it. What have you been doing?”

“Going to the Waffle House at night. I get hungry, Donie. I can’t eat all this stuff they cook here.”

“Well, stop eating waffles and get your hair cut. I’ve got some exciting news for you. A very big man on campus is interested in you. A law student. He saw you somewhere and called and asked about you.”

“Who is it?”

“His name’s Stanley Mabry. His father’s the lieutenant governor. He thinks you’re cute and he wants to take you out to dinner.”

“Why did he call you? Why didn’t he call me?”

“Because he doesn’t know you. Well, look, go on and get to bed. We’ll talk about it in the morning. You look like you’re tired.”