Page 16 of His Hungry Wolf

“It’s a small town. Everyone knows everyone.”

“What’s that like? Where I grew up there were just over 10,000 people. That’s not a lot compared to almost anywhere else, but you can go a lifetime without meeting everyone.”

“Yeah, it’s a little different here. My high school had 100 students and it was the only one for 40 miles.”

“So you met everyone your age on the first day of kindergarten?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s wild. So, everyone knows your business?”

“It’s not much they don’t know.”

Merri paused.

“How does that work with dating?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do all of you, like, have to take turns dating the same people?”

Against my better judgement, I laughed.

“No, there is no dating requirement here.”

“But there can’t be a lot of options.”

“Yes, options are limited.”

“So, what do you do about that?”

“Well, if you’re me, you choose not to date until you get to college.”

“I don’t remember you dating a lot of people at school.”

“Is this why you asked to talk, to find out the dating rituals of small-town America?”

Merri looked embarrassed.

“No, that’s not what I wanted to talk about, either.”

“Then what?”

“Do you remember that girl I was dating freshman year?”

I groaned.

“I promise you, this is going somewhere.”

“Yes, I remember her. Sheryl or something. Wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, Sheryl. Did I ever tell you why we broke up?”

“Wasn’t it something about “not feeling it with her”?”

“Yeah. That’s what I said.”

“Was it not the truth?”

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