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"?ba kept it after she left," Maggie told him. "I saw you with it. There was a t>ar of soap inside, remember? That dear kind of soap you can see through." **h, yes," Jesse said, letting go of Iris forelock.

"You remember it?" "Sure." Maggie relaxed. She flashed a bracing smile at Leroy, who had lowered her foot to the floor now and was looking uncertain.

"So where is it?" Fiona asked. "Where's my soapbox, Jesse?" "Well, uh, didn't your sister take it?" "No." "I thought she packed it up along with your other things." "No," Fiona said. "You had it in your bureau." Jesse said, "Gosh, Fiona. In that case maybe it's thrown out by now. But look, if it means so much to you, then I'd be glad to-" "But you kept it, because it reminded you of me," Fiona told him. ' 'It smelled like me! You closed your eyes and held my soapbox to your nose." Jesse's gaze swiveled to Maggie again. He said, "Ma? Is that what you told her?" "You mean it's not true?" Fiona asked him.

"You said I went around sniffing soapboxes, Ma?" "You did!" Maggie said. Although she hated having to repeat it to his face. She had never meant to shame him. She turned to Ira (who was wearing exactly the shocked, reproachful expression she had expected) and said, "He kept it in his top drawer." "Your treasure drawer," Fiona told Jesse. "Do you suppose I'd come all the way down here like any ordinary . . . groupie if your mother hadn't told me that? I didn't have to come! I was getting along just fine! But your mother says you hung on to my soapbox and wouldn't let Crystal pack it, you closed your eyes and took this big whiff, you've kept it to this day, she said, you've never let it go, you sleep with it under your pillow at night." Maggie cried, "I never said-!" "What do you think I am? Some kind of loser?" Jesse asked Fiona.

"Now, listen," Ira said.

Everyone seemed glad to turn to him.

BREA"THING LESSONS "Let me get this straight," he said. "You're talking about a plastic soapbox." "Afy plastic soapbox," Fiona told him, "that Jesse sleeps every night with." "Well, there seems to be some mistake," Ira said. "How would Maggie even know such a thing? Jesse has his own apartment now. All he sleeps with that I've ever heard of is an auto greeter." "A what?" "Oh, nevermind." "What's an auto greeter?" There was a pause. Then Ira said, "You know: the person who stands at the door when you go in to buy a car. She makes you give your name and address before she'll call a salesman." "She? You mean a woman?" "Right." "Jesse sleeps with a woman?" "Right." Maggie said, "You just had to spoil things, Ira, didn't you." "No," Ira told her, "it's the simple truth that's spoiled things, Maggie, and the truth is, Jesse's involved with somebody else now." "But that woman's no one important! I mean they're not engaged or married or anything! She's no one he really cares about!" She looked to Jesse to back her up, but he was studiously examining the toe of his left boot.

"Oh, Maggie, admit it," Ira said. "This is the way things are. This is how he's going to be. He never was fit husband material! He passes from girlfriend to girlfriend and he can't seem to hold the same job for longer than a few months; and every job he loses, it's somebody else's fault. The boss is a jerk, or the customers are jerks, or the other workers are-" "Now, hold on," Jesse began, while Maggie said, "Oh, why do you always, always exaggerate, Ira! He worked in the record shop a full year, have you forgotten that?" "Everyone in Jesse's acquaintance," Ira finished calmly, "by some magical coincidence ends up being a jerk." Jesse turned and walked out of the house.

It made things more disturbing, somehow, that he didn't slam the door but let it click shut very gently behind him.

Maggie said, "He'll be back." She was speaking to Fiona, but when Fiona didn't respond (her face was almost wooden; she was staring after Jesse), she told Leroy instead. "You saw how glad he was to see you, didn't you?" Leroy just gaped.

' 'He's upset at what Ira said about him, is all," Maggie told her. And then she said, "Ira, I will