JANICE JONES

Janice Jones, a reporter with AP, has been in Matamoros interviewing the mayor about a prisoner who claims he has been mistreated in the Mexican jail. Prisoners are packed 40 to a cell. If they are wealthy, they have private rooms. The Yank isn't so lucky. He has been recounting stories of torture and rape.

I met Janice many years ago after I left my first wife and moved to Laredo to work for a newspaper to clear my mind. She was the curator at the local museum. Her boyfriend was in the Nuevo Laredo jail on drug charges. We got together for a Friday baseball game and spent the next two nights in bed.

We hasten in a rented car from the airport to her hotel at the Island.

"My daughter called last night and she was upset," says Janice. "She's 19 and she's been going with the same guy since she was 13. They've been sleeping together since they were 15. She wants to break up."

"Why doesn't she?"

"She's tried to, but he's insistent."

"What does he do?"

He calls in the morning and wants to take her to breakfast. When she can't go, he wants to take her to lunch. His family has money and he's a hunk. He wants to marry her."

"She's tired of him, She's too young to be married. She needs other men."

"I've told her if she wants to get married, she should."

"That's stupid. They don't have a chance. You would probably tell her to have babies too."

"You're terrible."

"Why doesn't she tell him she's going out with other people?"

"It doesn't work. He keeps coming over."

"She should tell him she's sleeping with someone."

"I should have known better than to ask for your help."

Janice is in her early fifties, but her body retains the tautness of a teenager. She excites me with her screaming and scratching.

"I'm a homebody," she says. "I prefer cooking and reading."

"I like to eat and read."

"You'd be the last person on my list."