When I open them again, she is gone and a half drunk glass of neon liquid is standing before me. I drain it in one long movement, and though I feel it...sliding down my throat like freezing quicksilver, I cannot taste it at all. A man beside me is laughing.I am on my back, staring up at the ceiling which is yellow. A figure in a gas mask is standing over me. It leans down with big looming insect eyes and I see myself being lifting off the floor. I turn to look at the dance floor, but there is. "When I was a senior in high school, I needed an A in honors English, if I wanted to snag a scholarship. No A, no scholarship. No scholarship, no college. It was that simple. I mean my folks are great, although my mother can drive me just as crazy as yours does you." Both girls laughed in mutual sympathy and understanding. After another sip of wine, Jan continued. "It's not like my folks don't love me and work hard. Dad's a delivery driver and moonlights as a security guard while Mom's a. Her husband swung his axe with great care, split wood into fragments that would provide heat for the night — yet that was all that had happened. He had not heard — it – whatever it was she had heard. She had turned back toward the pale of potatoes when she heard the rustling again, and this time she ran out into the yard. The sun was now fading from the far horizon, the last bands of purpled-amber were settling across the western sky. She peered off into the woods — into that infinite darkness. She stuffed the cap into a parka pocket, unzipped the parka, and tossed it on a chair.I tried not to stare.The Pattersons lived two doors down from us. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson were two of my parents' closest friends. Matt, the eldest child, was a year ahead of me in school. We played football and hung around together. Emily, my sister, and Melody were two years behind me. They were best friends and roomed together at college. And Mark, Melody's little brother, was best buddy to my little.