The named stopped him cold although none of it was let show on his face. The cigarette in his mouth was drawn from, jets of smoke leaving his mouth in a rush.

"John Zatara's girl?"

There wasn't any doubt of it in John's mind and where this conversation could go next. Warn her that when she was older never to take home some member of a punk band? Don't fall for any pretty words he might tell her? No. None of that would be said now, not when he knew how things would go, had to go. At least for his version of her that was now his past.

"I ask because I met a stage magician named that once. You have his look."