“No. I just don’t wanna fight.”

“That’s too bad,” a girl said and swung at Alice, knocking the books from her arms. Alice reacted with punches in the girl’s chest. But the other girls grabbed her from behind and wrestled her to the ground. They began to pull at her clothes, trying to destroy what they wished they had while exposing to boys like myself parts of her body we all thought we were doomed to wonder about. When the girls had finished, they seemed pretty done in by their deed. Alice got to her feet, straightened her clothes, and gathered up her books. As she walked through the crowd, it was clear from the look on her face that we had finally won her over to our belief that she was better than we were.

The closer I got to Alice, the more I could see the change in her. She was still as foxy as ever but her fineness had lost its wild abandon. The daring that was once muscled into her walk had been replaced by a guarded stiffness. She smiled when she realized it was me, but that toothy spread that used to span her face was now hemmed in by the fear of hunters. I could tell that someone had crashed the party going on in her soul. But was the party over?

“How you doing, Alice? It’s been a long time.”

“It sure has. I’m doing okay. How you been, Mouth? I mean Melvin. I know you don’t like anybody calling you that anymore.”

“That’s all right. Most people around here don’t know me by any other name.”

“I heard about you being in jail. When did you get out?”

“Today.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“I heard you got married.”

“I was, but not anymore. What about you, Melvin? You married yet?”

“No.”

“Well, if you ever do, be sure you can make it with yourself before you try to make it with somebody else.”

“You see much of the old crowd?”

“Not too much. I just moved back from Jersey a few months ago. If I see anybody it’s usually at Rocky’s.”

“I was just on my way over there. You wanna come and have a drink with me?”

“All right.”

Rocky’s familiar mellow lighting relaxed me immediately. There were only a few people inside when Alice and I walked in. Midgy, the barmaid, was the only person I knew.

“Hey, Midgy.”

“How you doin, girl?”

“What’s wrong, Midgy, can’t you speak?”

“Mouth! Is that you?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“When you get out?”

“Today.”

“Well, that calls for a celebration. You and Alice’s first drink is on the house.”

“It’s funny. I really wanted to talk to you, but now I can’t think of anything to say,” I said.

“What’s there to talk about? You just got out of jail and I just got out of a marriage. We haven’t seen each other in a long time, so we’re having drinks together. After that we’ll go our separate ways and probably won’t see each other again for another five years.”