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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK94 Jack Fritscherfrom money, like you have money, like you appreciate what money can buy.%u201d I pulled a Madras shirt over my trunks.%u201cYou look like you%u2019re not wearing pants,%u201d Mike said.%u201cI%u2019ll tuck the shirt in.%u201d I was very insecure.%u201cI was kidding. Come on. We%u2019re late.%u201dIn the dining room, flooded with light, Julia and Doc Hager sat eating salad in silence. Her faded gentility perched on the edge of her chair. A lovely bygone sparrow, Julia was, in organza green-yellow as an August lawn. Doc wore white: short-sleeved shirt, trousers, and shoes. All white but for a red strawberry stain clotted above his fold of paunch. He looked as if he were wounded.%u201cMichael, we%u2019ve begun,%u201d Julia apologized.%u201cYou%u2019re late, kid,%u201d Doc said.%u201cRyan. I was so worried you wouldn%u2019t find Michael.%u201d Julia motioned us around the table. %u201cRyan, this is Doc, Michael%u2019s father.%u201d%u201cThat was settled out of court,%u201d Doc joked. %u201cHello, kiddo.%u201dHe finished his salad on his perfect china plate. Julia picked at a lettuce leaf, revealing a chip and a dark flaw running to the center of her dish.%u201cYou%u2019ve lovely china.%u201d I had been prepared to say it. My parents told me to say it. I said it for practice so I could feel what compliments felt like gurgling up from my throat, inflating in my mouth, frothing through my teeth and lips, floating bubbles of praise toward a host and hostess. Priests who have no money spend many a night singing for their supper wherever they are invited.%u201cThank you, Ryan. It was from my hope chest.%u201d%u201cThis is the last of it too,%u201d Doc said. %u201cFour place settings.%u201d%u201cI had only eight,%u201d Julia explained. %u201cOne was broken years ago when we moved to this house, almost on our Wedding Day.%u201d%u201cJulia broke the other one herself,%u201d Doc said.%u201cIt%u2019s an English tradition,%u201d Mike told me.%u201cWhen a child gets married,%u201d Julia smiled like a curator, %u201cone is supposed to break his plate, symbolizing he may not come back. When our Julie got married, I broke her setting.%u201d%u201cShe%u2019s not coming back,%u201d Doc said. He took abrupt interest in me. %u201cWhat do you do, son, besides go to the seminary in Ohio? You have to be more than a priest to get into this house.%u201d%u201cRyan is sort of a free-lance writer,%u201d Mike said.%u201cHe means I%u2019ve broken all my lances ha ha for free.%u201d I tried to put them off.