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exchange in the bar.
    What would he have said to Dolores if their roles had been
reversed? She had as much claim to the date as he did; but if he had nailed it down first, would he have withdrawn in her favor? Of course not. But it grated on him that it was Dudley Fyte as well as Dolores he was accommodating. And now where would he and Nancy marry?
    After half an hour, he went downstairs to eat and then went to a bar off the lobby and ordered a drink he had a better chance of enjoying. He was still there when Dolores slipped onto the stool beside his.
    â€œHi.”
    He looked past her. “Are you alone?”
    â€œIt didn’t seem like a good idea to bring Dudley.”
    â€œHe’s quite a guy.”
    â€œHe really is, Larry.”
    â€œI don’t know why I thought it made sense to come up here to talk with you about it.”
    â€œDid you really expect me to cancel?”
    He would have liked to say what he thought of her marrying Dudley Fyte. If Fyte had been a more likeable man, it would have been easier to accept the loss of the June 17 reservation.
    â€œTell me about your girl, Larry.”
    So he did, a bit, but soon they were recalling their sophomore year together, the decision to marry, and sealing it by going over to Sacred Heart and making a claim for June 17, 2002. Had Dolores thought that was the date she would marry no matter what? Larry sometimes thought he had proposed to Nancy in order to be able to claim the reservation.
    â€œHave you told her about us?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    He shrugged.

    â€œDidn’t she wonder why you had a reservation at the Basilica?”
    â€œI thought I would check first. That’s how I found out that you …”
    They moved to a booth and conversation came easily. Larry wondered what might have happened if they had met again before either of them had become engaged to someone else.
    â€œWe were so young, Larry.”
    â€œHow old is Dudley?”
    â€œLet’s just talk about the past.”
    It was odd the things he remembered with Dolores seated across from him, leaning toward him, her eyes glistening as they recalled how it had been. From his position, Larry could see the entrance from the lobby, so when Dudley Fyte appeared and looked around the bar he saw him. Their eyes met and Larry tensed, figuring that Dudley would come in and make a scene, but he whirled on his heel and disappeared.
    â€œWhat’s the matter, Larry?”
    He realized that his hands were covered by Dolores’s. She had not seen her fiancé.
    â€œNothing.”

7
    CONFRONTED WITH A RIVAL in Larry Morton, Dudley released from a vault in his brain the memory of how an earlier rivalry had ended. He and Ted Bonner had joined Kunert and Skye at the same time, and it soon became clear that they were cast in the role of professional competitors. The contest had been exhilarating, spurring himself and Bonner to better each previous performance as well as one another’s. But beneath it all was the sickening possibility of failure—the logical possibility of failure. Dudley was certain he would triumph, but doubts would come. So he made a friend rather than an enemy of Bonner. They skied in Colorado, took a week at Saint Kitts, sailed. That was how the rivalry came to an end.
    Dudley still kept his boat, a twenty-four footer, in a marina at Deephaven even after the tragedy. Of course it had been repainted and refitted since that sad day when it had been discovered on its side a thousand yards offshore in Lake Minnetonka, its sails in the water causing it to turn in slow bewilderment as if in search of magnetic north. The boat had been empty. Dudley himself had sounded the alarm when he managed to make it ashore, swimming through the black, chill waters toward the lights of the boathouse. He had come dripping into the bar like the old man of the sea.
    â€œGood Lord,” someone cried, “what happened to