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Instead of walking to the counter, where I normally would eat when alone, I walked to his table, drawn there as if under a spell. His smile did not waver. Our eyes met in an intense gaze as we made a brief appraisal of one another, and an inner made made a brief appraisal of one another, and an inner communication passed between us, as though we had always known one another. I approached his table and said casually: rr c 1» inner an wavering. “You know me?” I asked, as I pulled back a chair and sat down. “T know you only as well as you now know me. Please, just call me Adam, and do not ask my real name. In seven months I shall 1 1 cut eat be gone, and you have enough wounds of the spirit without adding my memory to your future.” The way he said it left no doubt that he meant seven months left to live, and I felt a loneliness and sadness at his words. Adam had expected me to feel this way upon first hearing about his short future, but he donned an air of indifference to my reaction, and his spirited demeanor had a steadying effect. He made me feel that we had more important things to talk about than his physical welfare and his length of life. m1 wad 1 towerd tr o4 The waitress came to the table and asked if she could help us. Adam smiled at her and replied, “One of your sizzling steak 1 1 » dinners, please.” He had ordered it for me, and I nodded in approval. Then I at noticed the pitcher of water on the table. There were two glasses besides Adam’s own glass. “Adam,” I asked. “Are you expecting someone else? Am I intruding on you and whoever you may be waiting for?” “No, Orfeo. Why do you ask?” He said it with such assurance that I felt I was just seeing things. “But there is a third glass on the table, Adam. Are you expecting someone besides me?” He looked at the glass. Then he looked at me with puzzlement. 18 SON OF THE SUN brief appraisal “Hello—friend.” “Hello, Orfeo,” he replied immediately, his smile never