Out on old Route 17, past the Poughkeepsie turnoff, there used to be a supper club called the Owl's Nest. It burned down in 1931, but for one summer in 1929, I met a man who went there every Saturday night with a dance card he never filled. He said the girls would smile at him, but none would sign his card. He showed me the card — blank, but warped, like it had been wet. He said that was from the night the fire started, and he'd been carrying it ever since, trying to understand why he was the only one who walked out. I didn't ask him how he knew he was the only one. I asked him what he remembered from inside. He said he remembered the band playing 'Goodnight, Sweetheart' as the ceiling came down, and a girl in a green dress, standing in the middle of the dance floor, still holding her dance card, looking right at him.