I’d noticed when she came on, as soon as she was relaxed and had the feel of the audience, she’d looked around, and I was sure she’d recognized ...someone when she looked in our direction. She didn’t know me from Santa Claus, so it had to be Julie, and sure enough, as she moved away from the piano she came over to our table. Julie stood up and hugged her and turned to me. I stood. ‘Bob,’ said Julie, ‘I’d like you to meet an old college friend of mine, Ellen Demaris. Ellie, this is Bob Archer.’. Beyond, to the rear of the room, was a dimly lit area. There appeared to be about twenty five more tables, scattered haphazardly about. The right half of the back room was his section. Only six of the tables were occupied by about 15 leering men. "Go to it Cheryl." Connie handed the young girl the tray. If anyone gets too frisky and you can't handle them yourself, just tell Jack over there by the door and he'll take care of it." Connie pointed out Jack. Wayne looked over by the door. I turned on the light and bent down. My spaghetti pot was underneath the chair on the far side of the table. He must have pushed it across the floor while licking it, only to get it too far under the chair to reach.The two "jaw" traps were still armed so I guess he learned his lesson. I opened both cupboards but those traps were void of visitors, too. That's OK. I could wait.This time I paid attention to what I was doing as I scooped his food out of the wastebasket.I heard a knock at the front. He missed our off campus excursions.Jesse and I were still on a no conversation policy at school, but had managed to graduate to 'please', 'thank you' and 'pass the red paint'. We walked to and from school in near silence, but every night, without fail, I would hear the knock on the wall and we would lie in bed, on bed, and talk. They were the conversation we should have had at the beginning. Jesse told me things about his life back in London, his old school, playing county level sports, how he.