Cabin Fever Read Free Page B

old, but you never listen. You’ve got amazing eyes, a beautiful face, and I love what the highlights do for your hair! Besides, sometimes it’s better when you don’t quite fit into a bikini, if you catch my drift.”
    That made Sarah laugh again, and suddenly it was like old times – just the two of them together and laughing and talking about boys. Ellie always made her feel better. Finally, her sister grew serious.
    “Maybe this is a good thing. Actually no, forget I said that. Of course it’s not a good thing, but maybe some good can come out of it anyway. If you really don’t know what you want to do with your life, now you have all the time you’ll need to figure that out. So take the time and find what will make you happy. Maybe it’s a man – and God knows, you definitely can up your game in that department. Maybe it’s another job. Maybe it’s sailing around the world or climbing Mt. Everest. Find it, and whatever it is, do that thing.”
    Sarah knew it was good advice, but she was very tired of talking about herself. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye and face the rest of the day alone with her thoughts, but she had to change the subject. “So enough about me. How about you? How are your classes?”
    Ellie wrinkled her nose in disgust. “My classes are boring. Actually, no – the classes are fine, it’s the students who are boring. Arrogant little twits, all so convinced that they have life figured out at the ripe age of eighteen. I can’t stand how self-satisfied they are.”
    “Sounds like a perfect description of you at that age.”
    “Well, at least I was charming about it.”
    Sarah laughed at that. It felt good to laugh. “Yes, your teenaged arrogance was very charming. How’s Jackson?” she asked over the rim of her coffee cup. Jackson was the man in Ellie’s life, a fellow professor at the university. Sarah had spent some time with Jackson, and she thought that he might be quite good looking if he didn’t always look like such a mess. Frankly she was surprised that Ellie put up with his personal and sartorial disorder; she could only assume that Jackson had certain other talents that only Ellie could attest to.  
    “Jackson is Jackson,” her sister replied mysteriously. “As he shall always be, I imagine.”
    “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
    “Both, of course,” Ellie said, and then turned to the counter to wave for Ben the barista.

3
    Go on an adventure, Ellie had said. Find what makes you happy and do it. It was good advice, and Sarah was still thinking about her words hours later as she drifted aimlessly through her apartment, a glass of red wine in her hand. What did she want? What would make her happy? She really didn’t know, and she wasn’t even sure that happiness was truly possible in this world. No one she knew was happy. Oh sure, some were content, and many of them were successful, but were they happy? They had challenging, complicated lives in which they could find satisfaction, but Sarah knew that few if any would describe themselves as happy. Happiness was a word that she applied to children or puppies, but it sounded naïve when applied to career women like herself.  
    She had almost talked herself out of the idea of even aiming for happiness when the phone rang. She answered, to find her father’s voice on the other end.
    “Hey, kiddo, I heard what happened.” Of course he had. Sarah imagined that Ellie had called him approximately 30 seconds after they said goodbye at the Starbucks. “How are you holding up?”
    “I’ve been better, Dad, but I’ll be OK. I just need some time to catch my breath and figure out what happened.”
    “Are you sure? Do you want to talk it out? ‘Cause I’m there for you, if you need to talk.”
    Sarah had to smile. Her father tried hard, he really did, but nurturing wasn’t his strong suit. Her father had always tried to be a rock, an impenetrable wall that protected his daughters from the rest of the world,