Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. The next morning, the first phone call turned out to be his old high school principal. After a quarter-hour of congratulations and reminiscence, Steve begged off to get ready for work. He barely finished shaving when the phone rang again. It was the girl he’d dated when he got back, hoping to renew their relationship. He begged off by being busy with his new job. Then, after managing to get two pieces of toast into the toaster, someone knocked on the door.
A middle-aged woman held out a plate of muffins. “I recognized your picture from the paper. I told my Henry that you couldn’t be that well-built for nothing. You’re just the sort of young man our country needs.”
She perused him like a piece of prime rib on a platter. The examination made him
