Echoes by Robin Jones Gunn

picked up some chicken and potato salad. What did you bring?”
    “The whole refrigerator.” Mindy motioned to the big ice chest on the ground at the end of the picnic table. “I didn’t want to take the time to figure out what to bring so I scooped everything into there.” She perched herself on top of the picnic table, and facing Lauren, asked, “So, are you recovering?”
    “I don’t know,” Lauren said with a sigh. “I’m fine now because Brad’s been working hard at keeping me happy. But I can’t help feeling as if I’ve made a horrible mistake. Maybe I should have gone to New York with Jeff. I haven’t been making good decisions lately. Ever since I decided to get my hair cut—”
    “No,” Mindy jumped in, shaking her head. “Don’t you see? Cutting your hair was your way of symbolically breaking with the past. You felt trapped by Jeff, and you knew this would push him away.”
    “I don’t think so, Min.”
    “Sure. Didn’t you ever see that movie where the guy works at a bakery, and his arm is chopped off in one of the machines? And then—who is that actress with the long hair? Well, anyway, she tells him he felt like a caged animal because of his engagement so he cut off his arm on purpose to scare away the woman. The woman he’s engaged to, that is, not the woman he’s going to end up with. But he doesn’t know that yet.”
    Lauren smiled. “I think I missed that one. If it didn’t have a Vulcan in it, we didn’t watch it this weekend.”
    “Oh, it’s a great movie. Very romantic, with a happy ending. And your life will have a happy ending, too.”
    “Do you have the gift of prophecy, and you never told me?” Lauren teased.
    A saucy smile graced Mindy’s lips as she said, “There’s always that possibility.”
    Six weeks later Mindy made another prediction about Lauren’s life. They were locking away their cash drawers in the vault at the end of a hot Friday afternoon in August. Mindy asked Lauren what her plans were for the weekend.
    “I need to finish the book I’m reading for my class and write a paper. It’s due Monday.” Lauren had enrolled in summer school the week after Jeff left. She had checked out the local colleges and found that to earn her teaching credential all she needed was three more English literature courses and one unit of physical education. She had done her student teaching during her junior year of college when she had considered being a teacher. The experience at the public school had been grueling, and she had switched her major to English literature her senior year. Now, with the goal of teaching at a small-town school, Lauren felt motivated to finish what she needed and move on with her life. Going back to school also helped to fill the gap in her social life with studies and a Monday night class.
    “Are you still reading that book about those two poets who fell in love through their letters?” Mindy asked.
    “Yes, the Brownings.” Lauren followed Mindy to the desk of the operations manager, Marie, where they turned in their paper work for the day and were signed out. Marie had been in a good mood ever since her fortieth birthday a week ago, when she had become engaged. It had made for a lot of talk around the office.
    “I can’t believe I balanced today,” Mindy said. “That twenty-seven cents was about to drive me to the loony bin.” She grabbed her purse, and Lauren picked up hers. After a round of “good nights,” Mindy suggested they take the elevator down to the lunch room to grab a cold soda before venturing out of the air-conditioned building and into the heat.
    “Did I tell you,” Lauren said as the elevator door shut onthe two of them, “that she was thirty-nine when their romance began?”
    “Really?”
    “Yes, I remember because she was six years older than Robert, and she had tuberculosis.”
    Mindy stopped in her tracks and placed her hands on her hips. “Get outta’ town. I never heard that.”
    Lauren nodded.