"I phoned you this morning, Nicky. Twice."
"Yeh?"
"They said you wasn't in."
"Yeh?"
A hard young woman, Miss Bauers, yet simple: powerfully drawn toward this magnetic and careless boy; powerless to forge chains strong enough to hold him. "Well, how about Riverview? I ain't been this summer."
"Oh, that's so darn far. Take all day getting there, pretty near."
"Not driving, it wouldn't."
"I ain't got the bus. Busted."
His apathy was getting on her nerves. "How about a movie, then?" Her feet hurt. It was hot.
His glance went up the street toward the Harper, down the street toward the Hyde Park. The sign above the Harper offered Mother o' Mine. The lettering above the Hyde Park announced Love's Sacrifice.