“Yeah, unfortunately.”

“Laura and I really had a good time tonight. We had dinner then a movie.”

“A movie, at midnight?”

“Well, it was the late show. Anyway, how come you never go out on dates?”

“I just haven’t found the right girl yet, that’s all.”

“Hey, I know. I’ll introduce you to Laura’s friend — what’s her name — Tricia! That’s it. She works at the museum.”

“Don’t do me any favors.” I said. With that we fell asleep. The next morning, I got up and got breakfast from outside the door. This apartment came with free meals. Although they were not much, they were free. I woke Noah up and we ate breakfast.

“You know,” Noah said, “I think I’ll become an inventor.”

“An inventor, give me a break! Okay, Mr. Inventor, fix the television.”

“Sure!” Noah said, getting up. He walked over and worked on the broken knob. After he fixed it, he said, “Here we go.” He went over to the phone, picked it up, and dialed a number.

“Who are you calling?”

“Why Laura, of course.”

“Oh.” Noah talked with Laura while I went and packed some clothes. “Hey Noah!”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to play some volleyball.”

“Okay.” He shouted, his mouth away from the phone. I left the apartment for the gym. I went inside the locker room and changed clothes. I went out on to the court to warm up for our game. During the years I spent at college I would come here to practice and we had kind of formed a co-ed team. The team consisted of six players, three boys and three girls. I was the Captain of our team. We challenged area teams. I practiced for ten minutes, while the rest of the team arrived, and we did group warm ups while we were waiting for the other team to arrive. We played a mean game, lost two and won three of the games we played.

“Hey Adam!” Heather said. “Like, do you remember like that I won’t like be here after like tomorrow.?

“What?! Where are you going?”

“Like, Springfield, Missouri. I figure I can like get a job there and maybe like find a husband.”

“Oh. Well, good luck.” I was worried. Heather was one of the team, and we would need another player soon. Sure, we could play five on six, but it was not normal. I showered, changed clothes, and went upstairs. Noah had changed. He was dressed in a polo-shirt, slacks, and a brown leather jacket, and he handed me my jacket, a trench coat.

“Hey, come on buddy.”

“Where are we going?”

“Where else? To the museum.”

“Why there?”

“Tricia’s there!”

“Oh, yeah.” We went down stairs and got into the car. I drove us there and we entered the museum. Once inside, Noah and I became separated quickly because there was a mob of people. I walked around for a while, when I finally stumbled upon a girl wearing what appeared to be a uniform, giving information about an artist’s palette which was encased in glass.