projects, as though she’d thought the moral balance of the world could be restored by a regimen of directed efforts.
“I remember you weren’t the most organized girl, but I don’t remember going to Woolworth’s, no.”
“I think you’d had enough of watching me never be able to find anything when I needed it. You made me separate my notes. That was one of the most helpful things anyone’s ever done for me.”
“I’m glad,” Eileen said, feeling a churning in her gut.
“You should come to law school with me. We could be study partners. I’d get the better end of that deal.”
It was as if Virginia was speaking to her from the outside of a circus cage, clutching a bar in one hand as she absently held a lamb chop in the other. Eileen had to get away before she said something she’d regret.
“Maybe in my next life,” she said, and the awkwardness she’d kept at bay came rushing back at once. The dress’s low cut left her feeling exposed. A new customer had arrived, and the other girl was busy with someone else, so Eileen asked Virginia if she was sure about the lavender dress and left her with the woman who arranged the accounts.
“Please look us up,” Virginia said on her way out. “Give us a couple of months to settle in. Bronxville, don’t forget. We’ll be in the phone book. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Callow. We’d absolutely love to have you over. There’s nothing so valuable in life as old friends.”
• • •
Her mother told her to save her money, to buy used if she had to have a car, but her father was the one to go with her to the showroom.
The new Pontiac Tempest was on the floor, the 1964 model.
“It’s most of what I have saved,” Eileen said.
“You’ll make more. You’ll save again.”
“It’s a bad investment.”
“It’s an investment in life,” her father said. “If this is what you want, this is what you’re getting. It beats the piss out of a beer truck, I’ll say that. Maybe I’ll get one myself. Or I could get one of those convertible types over there. What did he call that one? The GTO? I could drive your mother around in it. Do you think she’d take to it?”
For a moment, he sounded serious, and Eileen wanted to say, Daddy, I think she would , but instead she just said, “Now that is a terrible investment,” and asked him whether cherry red or navy suited her better.
She could buy used and save for the future, or she could make a statement about where she thought her life was heading, and shape the perceptions of others about that trajectory, and maybe sway the future by courting it.
“What the hell do you think I’m going to tell you?” her father said.
She went with cherry red.
• • •
She was at the table when her mother got in from work.
“Studying again?”
Eileen barely grunted in reply. In shedding herself of her effects, her mother had dropped her keys on Eileen’s splayed notebook. There were so many keys packed onto the interlocking rings; each represented a room, or several, that her mother had to clean. Eileen slid them off the notebook as if they were coated in pathogens.
“Why don’t you put those books aside for five minutes,” her mother said. “You can drive me and my friends.”
“Drive where? Which friends?”
“My meeting friends.”
Meeting friends , Eileen thought crankily. She almost makes it sound pleasant.
“Take my car,” she said, not looking up from her book.
“I’m nervous to drive it.”
Her mother had only had her license for a year, and she was shaky on the road. The Tempest was still brand-new.
“I’ve got a test.”
“We started a car pool,” her mother said. “I said I’d pick everyone up this week.”
“And how had you planned on doing this, exactly?”
“Come on,” her mother said. “It’s getting late.”
The first stop was in Jackson Heights. She was surprised to pull up outside one of the co-ops; she’d always imagined that people of means werespared
“I remember you weren’t the most organized girl, but I don’t remember going to Woolworth’s, no.”
“I think you’d had enough of watching me never be able to find anything when I needed it. You made me separate my notes. That was one of the most helpful things anyone’s ever done for me.”
“I’m glad,” Eileen said, feeling a churning in her gut.
“You should come to law school with me. We could be study partners. I’d get the better end of that deal.”
It was as if Virginia was speaking to her from the outside of a circus cage, clutching a bar in one hand as she absently held a lamb chop in the other. Eileen had to get away before she said something she’d regret.
“Maybe in my next life,” she said, and the awkwardness she’d kept at bay came rushing back at once. The dress’s low cut left her feeling exposed. A new customer had arrived, and the other girl was busy with someone else, so Eileen asked Virginia if she was sure about the lavender dress and left her with the woman who arranged the accounts.
“Please look us up,” Virginia said on her way out. “Give us a couple of months to settle in. Bronxville, don’t forget. We’ll be in the phone book. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Callow. We’d absolutely love to have you over. There’s nothing so valuable in life as old friends.”
• • •
Her mother told her to save her money, to buy used if she had to have a car, but her father was the one to go with her to the showroom.
The new Pontiac Tempest was on the floor, the 1964 model.
“It’s most of what I have saved,” Eileen said.
“You’ll make more. You’ll save again.”
“It’s a bad investment.”
“It’s an investment in life,” her father said. “If this is what you want, this is what you’re getting. It beats the piss out of a beer truck, I’ll say that. Maybe I’ll get one myself. Or I could get one of those convertible types over there. What did he call that one? The GTO? I could drive your mother around in it. Do you think she’d take to it?”
For a moment, he sounded serious, and Eileen wanted to say, Daddy, I think she would , but instead she just said, “Now that is a terrible investment,” and asked him whether cherry red or navy suited her better.
She could buy used and save for the future, or she could make a statement about where she thought her life was heading, and shape the perceptions of others about that trajectory, and maybe sway the future by courting it.
“What the hell do you think I’m going to tell you?” her father said.
She went with cherry red.
• • •
She was at the table when her mother got in from work.
“Studying again?”
Eileen barely grunted in reply. In shedding herself of her effects, her mother had dropped her keys on Eileen’s splayed notebook. There were so many keys packed onto the interlocking rings; each represented a room, or several, that her mother had to clean. Eileen slid them off the notebook as if they were coated in pathogens.
“Why don’t you put those books aside for five minutes,” her mother said. “You can drive me and my friends.”
“Drive where? Which friends?”
“My meeting friends.”
Meeting friends , Eileen thought crankily. She almost makes it sound pleasant.
“Take my car,” she said, not looking up from her book.
“I’m nervous to drive it.”
Her mother had only had her license for a year, and she was shaky on the road. The Tempest was still brand-new.
“I’ve got a test.”
“We started a car pool,” her mother said. “I said I’d pick everyone up this week.”
“And how had you planned on doing this, exactly?”
“Come on,” her mother said. “It’s getting late.”
The first stop was in Jackson Heights. She was surprised to pull up outside one of the co-ops; she’d always imagined that people of means werespared
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