I went over and joined my friends. Clarice had her arms around Barbara Jean, both of them seated on the floor. I got down on my knees beside them and grabbed ahold of Barbara Jean’s hand. She stared at Lester’s body as it rocked under James’s futile effort to revive him. She shook her head slowly from side to side and said, in the soft tone of a mother gently scolding a much-loved, naughty child, “I can’t take my eyes off you, can I? Not for two seconds.”
