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Show •228 hummed in the riverside weeds. Jacob wiped his forehead; it gleamed with sweat. "Jesus it's hot; I've never known it to be this hot this early in the year." The sky was a dangerous blue. "I understand better than you think," he said. "There was a lesson there," I said. "if you get too involved with a woman you're bound to get hurt somehow, even if both of you begin with the best intentions." My brother stopped walking. "What about you and Morgan?" "So you get hurt," I said. "Sometimes it's worth it. Anyway Morgan and I have an understanding." "Oh." "Thanks for not laughing. I know it doesn't work. I don't know anything about women; I didn't know anything the day that Jenny Prudhomme let me do it to her in the back seat of the car, and I haven't learned anything since. Every time is like the first time for me." We walked through grass that lay flat on the ground like matted hair. We had come two or three miles north of town while we talked, through fields still flooded from the recent hard rains; sometimes we had to step carefully from hummock to grassy hummock because the water was ankle-deep. The valley topsoil is black and rich but underlying it everywhere is a layer of thick greasy clay which cups the water for a long time. We had set out to talk about Carlo, but |