Chapter 36

Woman I know you understand
The little child inside the man,
Please remember my life is in your hands,
And woman hold me close to your heart,
However, distant don't keep us apart,
After all it is written in the stars...

(From "Woman,"

By John Lennon)

Bobby walked out to Collette's Beemer, a duffel bag with his baseball gear over his shoulder. Collette popped the trunk and came out to meet him with a kiss behind her car, before Bobby slung the bag in and closed the lid. They got in, buckled up, and headed off to tour the USC campus. Afterwards they would walk to the Gamecock's field for the state championship baseball game.

"Here's some maps of the campus," Collette said, handing him several with different levels of detail. "Did you know that USC was established in 1801?" she asked with a grin.

"Why, yes I did!" replied Bobby, having surfed the school's web site together with Collette many times by now.

"Well, there's only twenty seven dorms on campus, so it shouldn't take too long to find mine," Collette said cheerfully.

"You know, I have this, uh, baseball game later," Bobby reminded her. "I don't think the coach would be happy if I walked 10 miles before the game."

"Baseball, shmaysh-ball," Collette replied. "We have to find my dorm, and the horse shoe," she said factually. "That'll be enough for the first visit."

They were able to park fairly close to the dorm, and although the external doors were locked, they were able to tail gate other students entering the building pretty easily.

Collette didn't have a room assignment yet, so they just wandered the building, finding the exercise room, the study rooms, and the small kitchens on each floor. The students in the building seemed to be of every color imaginable, and it seemed that they all mixed effortlessly, which the two visitors agreed was pretty cool.

They looked into rooms that had their doors open, and saw that there were different sizes, some with only two students, and up to as many as six in a suite type arrangement around a common study / TV room.

Eventually they'd seen as much as there was to see. They could tell from the maps that they would have to come back past where the Beemer was parked on the way to the ball field. So they left Bobby's duffel bag in the car, and they set off to find the 'horse shoe, ' which was the term for the oldest and most picturesque quadrangle of buildings on the campus, with grass and trees in its center.

When they arrived, they picked out a tree to sit under, and plopped down to take in the view and soak up the college ambiance. Bobby could see that Collette was pumped up at seeing where she was headed, and grinned at her enthusiasm.

After they'd been sitting a while, Collette swung her purse into her lap, and began digging through it. She began to swear softly when she couldn't find what she was looking for.

"What do you need?" Bobby asked helpfully. "I'm sure there's two of everything in there." As it was to all males, the content of a woman's purse was a deep and dark mystery.

"Shut up, honey," she replied, as she continued to search. Eventually, she seemed to find what she was after, but she held on to it without withdrawing whatever it was.

She smiled at Bobby, and took a deep breath.

"Bobby... there's something I want to give you," she began. "And I know you're probably going to argue against accepting it. But, I really want you to have it. Okay?"

"Well, all right," he replied hesitantly.

"Close your eyes, and hold out your hand," she instructed.

When he had done so, he felt Collette place something small on his palm.

"Okay, open them," Collette said nervously.

Bobby looked down into his hand, and then quickly up to Collette's face. Sitting on his palm was a key with the BMW logo on it. Before Bobby could say anything, Collette rushed to speak.