There is something knowing in the girl's laugh, a certainty that made the jocks look like little kids in Tim’s eyes. Terri back in Eveleth has that same way about her—as if she sees her future clear. Here Tim’s the Big Man Off at College while Terri’s still in high school. She’s only now to applying to those Big Eastern Colleges she was always going on about. Still, sometimes he imagines e-mailing her out of the blue because she somehow already knows things—things he ought to.

The tang of the Milwaukee's Best Lite cuts a cold line down his throat.