” “You’re a sassy one, aren’t you?” he asked mockingly. “I can handle myself,” I replied. “We’ll see about that,” he mumbled. “I...��m giving you one last chance to tell me what happened,” he demanded as if he expected me to be threatened by him. “I have nothing that I want to say to you. Besides, I don’t have to talk to you if I don’t want to. I know my rights". “Yeah, you’re just a know-it-all, aren’t you?” he said as he closed the file. The look he gave me was chilling. I might have pushed his. ”The sun shown brightly, casting his face in shadow. It also shined directly on her visage, mobile in denial of her calm. She was “in the spotlight.” Had she been younger or had she been older the light would have highlighted her imperfections. At 19 she had none ... on the surface. Her imperfections were “in the flesh,” afloat in her soul.They began together.“I need...” she said.“You need...” he said.They looked ... and tried again.“I’m so...” she said.“You are lonely...” he said.“Consuelo...”. He tucked the small phone inhis shirt pocket.And they can't trace the phone if it's off, thought Kelly. But hedoesn't seem to know that. And maybe I'm wrong, maybe a phone that'sturned off can be traced.They looked at each other for a moment, saying nothing; each wonderingwhat the other thought.He still doesn't know I'm a boy, thought Kelly.She still doesn't know who I am, thought Phil.Around them the business of a busy Saturday afternoon in a SouthernCalifornia mall parking lot went on. People. And that popularity meant little to him but a lot to his parents.At secondary school he would sit at the back with the troublemakers but get on with his work with an ability to tune out any disruptions. If he sometimes over did the careful presentation of an essay (rewriting it because of one crossing out for instance), if he was left to get on with it he stayed unstressed. Exams were hard, he hated to have to hand in work that was untidy, teachers learned to remove his work as he did the first.