I don’t want you to get the idea she was a goddam icicle or something, just because we never horsed around much. She wasn’t. I held hands with her all the time, for instance. That doesn’t sound like much, I realize, but she was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls if you hold hands with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or else they think you have to keep moving their hand all the time, as if they were afraid they’d bore you or something. Jane was different. We’d get in the goddam movies or something, and right away we’d start holding hands, and we wouldn’t quit till the movie was over. And without changing position or making a big deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.

Ma boy Holden just keeps holdin on.