Lion Cast  I walk east on 2nd Street in Oak Valley up the hill to Home Avenue. My brother's friend Brian Rappaport is in the house on the corner, and his big blue truck is there. Brian's friend Jeff Bautsch lives in the house, and Brian is visiting. I don't want to talk to them. I hope they don't see me as I walk by. I turn left onto Home Avenue. One or two houses down, I go past and look in. I see my friends Niles Zelling and Trevor Peterson. I go in. Trevor and I hug each other. His fiance is there. She is fair-skinned with shoulder-length straight dark hair. There is beer in the refrigerator, but I can't have one because it's Trevor's. Trevor looks very strong. Niles says something about a party in Meyers Dorm. I tell them how drunk my classmate Sharon Lincoln was last night my friend Bill Hanson's party. We drive. I ask Trevor how long he's been in the Air Force. He says he gets out at the end of May and Air Force is paying for a six-week paid vacation to Florida, just before he gets out. We arrive at a small, open, hick-town bar, but leave. There is a lion mounted, but it's a cast of a real lion: a big, beautiful, and rare animal. The cast was made on the east coast somewhere.