”“Really?” Her voice was full of mock wonder. After giving me a chance to inhale a chicken leg, she asked in that same voice, “was she pretty?...��“Very pretty.” I took her hand and held it in mine. “Maybe the prettiest girl I have ever known.”She turned and lowered her head to hide the slight blush forming on her cheeks.“You’re just saying that.”“Yes, I am,” I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it. “But that doesn’t mean that it’s not true.”Our conversation settled into more routine and mundane. ."But I didn't wait to listen, and Mama was holding me and I hid my faceand just wanted to leave. But Mama had to pay the lady and she told thehaircut lady that I was a bit of a tomboy, and didn't wear a top at thebeach yet, and smiled. And the hair cut lady smiled (and I think she waslaughing at me) and said to come back, and was still nice, but I didn'tknow what she really thought, and I wanted to never go back at all.**********Chapter XXXIII: JB Gets Frightened I was really scared. What if. “But, I need to heed my own advice and get back in the game.”He paused and saw his wife, Franny, standing in her usual spot before each home game. She had a weird smirk on her face, like when she waited for the love of her life to figure out the correct answer on his own. He smiled and gave her a quick wave. She waved back and nodded to herself as if she knew what he was thinking.Big John meandered his way across the field to supervise the warm-ups but thought to himself, “No way she knew what. I don't think anything more than thatregistered, which isn't really a surprise; I was probably in some sortof shock. But now I'm thinking, and I have nothing more to do than workout who I am. Who Jo is. Who I might have to be.Nothing will stop me from refurnishing my apartment my way, of course.I can ditch anything, and rebuild it the way I want. I can dress how Ilike, act how I want, my actions aren't predetermined by a female thatI don't know, and never will. But the person who inhabited this.