I can't give any exact proof right now, mainly because I wasn't planning on asking this, but could the girl in the story somehow be Muriel? Once again, I don't have the corresponding literature with me to back me up, but I remember something in Seymour: An Introduction. Specifically, the last two poems before his death alluding to an affair or something else? And as Buddy takes credit for writing Teddy and Catcher in the Rye, could he have possibly written Pretty Mouth...also, alluding to Seymour? Buddy being the Salinger figure, that is. I'll have to go back and look over the story. Am I just being foolish? Please tell me what you guys think. -Jimmy Jim Jim