Editing Hearts in Atlantis (section)

==="Hearts in Atlantis"===
The next part of the book, ''Hearts in Atlantis'', takes place in 1966. Peter Riley, a freshman at the  [[University of Maine]], gets addicted to playing [[Black Lady|hearts]] in the all-male [[dormitory]] where he lives. Although their student draft deferments have shielded them from serving in the [[Vietnam War]], Riley and the growing number of students addicted to the game (led by student Ronnie Malenfant, who introduced the game to the dorm) put themselves at risk as their studies suffer.

Peter eventually meets Carol, Bobby Garfield's childhood friend. Carol herself uses student activism as an escapist addiction of her own. Although they fall in love, Carol comes to announce that she will be leaving school. She explains that her decisions are forever influenced by the help that Bobby had given her when they were 11. She and Riley make love for the first time in his car. The next morning, she leaves a note warning him to stop playing hearts.

When Stokely Jones, a disabled student activist (who specifically asks for a third floor dorm room, in spite of being on crutches), slips and falls in a rainstorm, Riley is disturbed by the strange way he and the other boys laughed at Jones's misfortune. He finds he is shaken from his hearts addiction and resolves to turn his grades around.  Shortly afterward, Jones is accused of having sprayed "Fuck [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]]" on a campus wall, with the dormitory floor proctor reasoning that the peace signs accompanying the message lead to Jones. However, Riley and the others point out that they, too, have been toting peace signs, undermining the accusation and saving Jones from punishment.

Riley barely passes his classes and receives a package from Carol containing a newspaper article of a protest she participated in.