I gave up trying to explain college to her.Later, seated in the balcony of the auditorium, I spotted Martha in the procession of students in caps and ...owns, as well as her mom and Evelyn and another older female who sat in the audience. I hadn't seen Martha in several weeks; she looked pleased, if not visibly exhausted after the crunch of her final exams. When she walked to the podium to accept a special certificate of honor, I wondered how soon she would leave Memphis State, or if she would. " PART FOURTEEN: ROAD TRIP"Would you get your shoes off the dashboard, please?" Tammi complained."I don't want you to scratch the upholstery." Fine," said Nick, who kicked off his shoes and put one bare foot outthe window, the other back up on the dash. "This is kinda nice. I'musually too big to stretch out in the car like this." They were only a few hours into the trip and already Nick was gettingon her nerves. He had shown up wearing a belly shirt and a pair of cut-offs that Tammi recognized. " Excuse me, some of us are trying to learn here," I said."I am not in the mood for you," he said, shifting his stare to me.I wanted to tell him that I wasn't in the mood for him either, but my policy is never get suspended on a Friday if you can help it. Ruins the weekend. "We're here to learn and Mr. Bower was just getting to the good part." I was?" Bower asked in surprise. "Well, to continue, the female mos..." I'm not done here." Parker said loudly. "What is this about?" He slapped the. " Is it any good?" Try it and see. It's hot and stays hot a long time."They did like it but were stuffed when we were done. Maggie and Angela cleaned up for us.Around ten, we started to get some visitors. I saw that they had been asked to come by Susan or one of the other girls. The first few were Susan's age but then older ones arrived. Instead of working, I stayed and answered the door and greeted the guests. Some left but four young women stayed along with two infants. It occurred to me that.