Then one day I came back to the flat and Jenny was sitting on the floor. ‘Where’s Rudolph?’ I asked. ‘Gone,’ she said. ‘Walked out, like all the others.’ And then she started to cry. ‘Don’t cry, Jenny,’ I said. And I put my arm round her. Well, it started like that. But the next minute we were kissing and making love! And when we finished, Jenny said, ‘Forrest, where have you been all this time?’
Chapter 8 Into Space Spring and summer went by, and I continued to play my harmonica with the group. It was my happiest time of all. But ─ you’ve guessed it ─ something went wrong. How did it happen? I don’t know. But one night I was sitting outside the Hodaddy Club, smoking a cigarette, when a girl smiled and came up to me. She sat down across my legs and put her arms round me. She was laughing and kissing me, and I didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, the door opened behind me, and there was Jenny. ‘Forrest, it’s time to ─’ She stopped when she saw me with the girl. Then she said, ‘Oh, no! Not you, too!’ I jumped up and pushed the girl away. ‘Jenny!’ I said. ‘Stay away from me, Forrest!’ she said. ‘You men are all the same! Just stay away from me!’ She didn’t speak to me again that night. And the next morning she told me to find another place to live. I went to live with Moses, one of the other men in the group, and soon after that Jenny went to Washington to talk and work against the war. Moses wrote down the address for me. So I went back to Washington, too. 25
