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Show wr 31. "That's your middle name?" she said. "But I like it. Chester Erasmus Brocken--it has dignity. You wouldn't want to be just Bill or Jack." "That's just what I've always wanted." "No. You are Chester Erasmus. Be that." She got out of bed, where we had been for some time without clothes, resting, and went to get the dictionary. She came back flipping pages, hardly limping. "Names mean things, you know. But ummmm, Chester doesn't seem to mean anything at all." "That figures." "Chess means plenty to me." She leaned down and kissed me on the lips. "Now, here we go." She made herself comfortable on the bed, cross-legged. "Ah-ha, Erasmus means 'lovely, worthy of love.' That's you, darling, worthy of love." I sat up so she could kiss me a second time. For I did feel worthy, more than I had since I was five years old and first fallen for the child who became this woman. "You know what Brocken means though?" I said. "Crumb. Or morsel." "Well? You're some morsel, Ace." She leaned forward and for the third time kissed me on the lips/"' "OK, now what does Kate mean?" "Nothing. Just short for Kathleen." "And Kathleen?" "Nothing. It's the Irish version. Diminutive for Catherine." "Diminutive? Nothing diminutive about you," I said, stroking the parts I meant. |