Rainie was glad not to have to argue with her. She didn't wantanything to take away the strange jittery happiness that had beengrowing inside her all afternoon. She had no idea what the game wasabout, but she knew she liked these men, and she was beginning tosuspect that maybe this game, maybe these boys were the reason shehad stopped her wandering at this cafe in Harmony, Illinois. If there'dbeen a place in town that sold any clothes worth buying, Rainie wouldhave bought a new outfit. As it was, she spent a ridiculous amount oftime fretting over what to wear. It had to be that the sheer foolishimmaturity of these boys had infected her. She was like a virgin girlgetting ready for her first date. She laughed at herself -- and thentook off all her clothes and started over again.

She spent so much time choosing what to wear that she put offbuying any refreshments until it was almost too late. As it was, all shehad time to do was rush to the corner grocery and buy the first thingthat she saw that looked suitable -- a giant bag of peanut M&Ms.

"I hear you're going to feed the baby," said the zit-faced fat thirty-year-old checkout girl, who'd never given her the time of day before.

"How do these stories get started?" said Rainie. "I don't evenhave a baby."

She got back to her apartment just as Tom pulled up in a brand-new but thoroughly mud-spattered pickup truck. "Hop in before you letall the heat out!" he shouted. He was rolling before she had the doorshut.

Douglas Spaulding's house was just what she expected, rightdown to the white picket fence and the veranda wrapped around thewhite clapboard walls. Simple, clean lines, the walls and trim freshlypainted, with dark blue shutters at the windows and lights shiningbetween the pulled-back curtains. A house that said Good plain folkslive here, and the doors aren't locked, and if you're hungry we've got a