Paula Dixon was still standing behind the door.
"You're mat getting any older,"! heard her whisper
through the door,"it1 s just that everyone else is getting
younger„The world is immatiring,while you're getting more
and more nature.►You should always rememner that,"
It seemed: like .she nadnrt really said that,and that it
wasjust a voice, out af nowhere,If it was anythingat all,it
was right,I picked up an old photo album that we had looked
at and I, picked out a picture of her, Sh’.v was smiling and
laughing and having a grear time.,So. was I,Look at me now.
I'm in a crummy mo.tel in the middle of nothing worrying a-
bout whether or not I'm too.' old,I guess me thinking: I'mmold
has something to do with seeing an old girlfriend like that.
Now I want to see all my other old friends again,That fo.rr
tune teller on the beach was wrong;she said we'd be lovers
for a night,Somehow,,I could never imagine us_ doing anything
like that,!*m not even married yet.I'm too old nit to be
married,and to old to. get married.
I sat in a chair all night thinking about everything:
Paual Dixon and I ever did together,When I really got down
to thinking about it,we never did much of anything together.
Even at the stadium in high school when we got lost,she made
us look around for everybody else,I wish I hadn't seen her
again,She just about ruined my life,I just said good-bye
to the only girl that I ever cared for,I thought I liked
Julianna,but I Just thought I liked her so I could say I
liked someone,Be sides thaet,it gave me someone to blow all ry
money on.
I looked around the roam for the. first time since I
. got here,It was a dark,brown room,The walls were brown and so were the curtains and furniture,There was a nice little lamp in the corner and another one next to the chair I was
sitting in,I was in. a chair next to a window,To the other side
of it was a table that had a bunch of crossword puzzles and
o-ther word games on it along with a half-full glass of hour-