moment
more intense. University students at a corner table might have been
figures on a screen or spread around a vase. It was _right now_,
Eugene, Oregon. He wanted to shout: "It will never be this way again.
We're here! We're alive!" He smiled as he imagined a full moon
appearing from behind a cloud. Francesca was standing on Crescent
Beach, looking up at the moon, her hands clasped behind her. Oliver
stood and bowed slightly to the waiter and to the room.

The next morning he called Porter and told him when he'd be back. He
took a bus from Eugene to Portland. The Willamette Valley was green and
fertile, a nice after-image on the following afternoon as the plane
lowered over the brown Maine woods and the steely blue Atlantic. He
took a cab to State Street and had a reunion with Verdi. Porter had
left the apartment in tidy shape. There was a letter from Francesca.
She had received the box and the heart.

11.

Francesca's note was written on a 3X5 card:

O,

Thank you.

F.

Warmth rushed through Oliver as he stared at her writing. Francesca was
answering in kind; she had accepted his valentine. "What do you think
about that, my friend?" he asked Verdi. "What do you think about that?"
Verdi bumped against his ankle, a sign of high satisfaction. It was
good to be home.

Oliver looked around the living room. The mantle was empty without the
walnut box. He wished that he had a picture of Francesca to take its
place. He unrolled the snakeskin and pinned it vertically to the wall
by the steps, admiring the silver and ivory colors and the dark
diamonds that had curled around the snake.

He went early to bed and spent a long time looking out at the night and
remembering the trip: the gardens and the Japanese restaurant in
Portland, Michiko standing by her moss-rock, Diamond Head, The Devil's
Churn, his father's face--there had been much to see and few words.
What was there to say about these things? Owl had cautioned him more
than once: "_Listen to what people say, but pay more attention to what
they do._" What would he _do_ with the treasures of this trip?

Treasure, literally. One thing he could do was to put his father's
money to work. He decided to open a stock brokerage account. He needed
to get a programming project, so that he wouldn't start spending the
money. And he needed to see Francesca. She was more fun to think about
than job interviews; he drifted to sleep remembering her on Crescent