Alma Mater Read Free

you remember the first time you saw Charly?"
    "Sure, when you introduced us."
    "Well?"
    "Well, what?" Vic shrugged.
    Jinx asked. "Do you remember what you thought?"
    Accustomed to male attention, Vic remembered her first meeting with Charly, but it didn't loom as large in her consciousness as it did in his. She hoped that didn't show. "I thought he was a nice guy."
    "Thank you." Charly smiled.
    "Jinx, if you go around trying to find someone, you never will. I think it kind of sneaks up on you. You'll meet the right person."
    "And he'll like intelligent women." Charly winked at Jinx.
    He liked Jinx. She was cute, energetic. He had to like her. Jinx and Vic were inseparable.
    They passed the Catholic church, St. Bede's, stopping to ad mire the large statue of Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother, in the middle of the immaculately kept grounds. Across the street, the mon signor lived in a tidy white house where he kept an eye on St. Bede's and Mary.
    "She always looks so peaceful," Jinx remarked. "Male saints never look as peaceful as the Blessed Mother."
    "Because they're struggling against their own testosterone."
    "If Raphael were alive, he'd paint you as the Madonna." Charly kissed Vic's cheek.
    Jinx grimaced. "I'm going to throw up."
    "Cynic," Charly said.
     
    "I'll be the godmother to Vic's children. They'll need a cynic in their lives. That's probably why the BVM looks so peaceful. The kids are out of the house."
    "Your mother, if she heard you . . ."
    "She won't unless you tell her." Jinx pinched Vic's arm. "Which re minds me, what's the plan for the weekend?"
    Vic rolled a deep breath. She hadn't yet told Charly that she needed to go home. He hated it when she missed a football game. In his defense, he attended all her lacrosse games. Vic and Jinx held the lacrosse team together each spring.
    "Home."
    Charly's face fell.
    "Dad's lost all our money. Again." She glanced at each of her friends and then back to the serene BVM. "Mother came by yesterday. She didn't make a big deal about it, but you know it is. Last time he did this I was in seventh grade, and it was hell."
    "Can you pay tuition?" Charly dropped his large hand on her shoulder, lightly squeezing.
    "I did already. That sucked up most of the money I made working for Uncle Don this summer." She exhaled again, louder this time. "I've got enough for my books, but I think I need to get a job. No lacrosse."
    "Don't say that," Jinx said quickly, her voice carrying a sense of ur gency. "There's plenty of time before practice starts. We'll think of something."
    "Hey, it's not a funeral. If I can't play lacrosse, I can't. I can't let Mom and Mignon down."
    "There's got to be another way," Jinx said.
    "Sell dope?" Vic suggested, raising her eyebrows.
    "Mmm, not a good idea."
    "Charly, you're so straight." Jinx studied the BVM's impassive, beatific expression. "I think she'd look fetching in a striped uniform." "Prisoners wear orange now," Vic corrected her.
    "Orange, well, that's bright and cheery." Jinx thought for a moment. "Maybe someone needs a researcher, some professor who lost his graduate assistant."
    "Yeah, but I'm not in graduate school."
     
    "They can make exceptions," Jinx said hopefully.
    "We'll figure something out," Charly reassured her.
    They walked back toward the shops. Charly kissed Vic again and then headed for class.
    Vic and Jinx walked back to Vic's apartment, just around the corner from Jinx's. The two friends could never be far apart, but they couldn't room together. They'd figured out early on that they'd never get any work done.
    leez, there's nothing in here." Jinx looked around her friend's apartment.
    "One bed, one kitchen table, four chairs, and a million books. That's all I need."
    "Vic, it's depressing."
    "The living room is cavernous. I don't think of it as depressing. I think of it as spartan elegance."
    "No money."
    "Well, yeah. Now I'm really glad I didn't buy anything. I mean after Mother's visit. I've got a little bit in reserve."
    "But