"Tom's turn," said Douglas.

They turned toward him expectantly. He spread his hands out onthe table, and looked them in the eye, as if he was about to deliver thestate of the union address. Or a funeral prayer. "Seven-Up," said Tom. "A large seven-up for everybody."

"Are you serious?" asked Douglas. "And what's for dessert, toothpaste?"

"The rule is no alcohol at lunch," said Tom, "and beyond thatwe're free to be as creative as we like."

"You're giving creativity a bad name," said Douglas.

"Trust me," said Tom.

"If all we get today is Seven-Up," said the mechanic, "you aregoing to spend the entire evening as primordial slime."

"No, he's going to spend the night in hell," said another.

At the soda machine, spurting the Seven-Up into the glasses,Rainie had to ask. "What in the world are they talking about?"

"It's a game they play," said Minnie. "It's notorious all over town. More satanic than Dungeons and Dragons. If these boys weren't sonice they'd probably be burnt at the stake or something."

"Satanic?"

"Or secular humanist or whatever. I get those two things mixedup. It's all about feeding beans to the baby and when you win youturn into God. Pagan religion and evolution. I asked ReverendBlakely about it and he just shook his head. No wonder Jaynanneleaves town whenever they play."

"Aren't you going to serve up the chili?"

"Not till they're through with whatever nonsense they do aboutthe drinks."

Rainie loaded the drinks onto the tray and headed back to whatshe was now thinking of as the Boys' Table. Whatever it was thatDouglas Spaulding and his friends had turned into, it was suddenly alot more interesting to her, now that she knew that at least some groupsin the town disapproved of it. Evolution and paganism? It soundedlike it was right up her alley.

She started to load off the glasses at each place, but Tom