Echoes Read Free Page A

heart to her friend, Mindy, as they sat in the basement lunch room.
    “And that was it?” Mindy asked. “Love me, love New York? End of discussion?”
    Swirling her spoon around in her yogurt carton, Lauren lowered her eyes. She and Mindy ate lunch together nearly every day, and on this gloomy Monday Lauren was glad she had someone to talk to. Mindy was a good listener but not always a good empathizer. Probably because her life was normal. Calm. Not bizarre. Crazy things like a perm disaster never seemed to happen to Mindy.
    “There was a lot more to the discussion than that,” Lauren said. “We talked until almost two in the morning. The thing is, this is Jeff’s dream, to work at a New York advertising agency. He thought it would take ten or twelve years before he would be groomed for such a position. I guess he thought by that time we would be married, have a kid or two, and wherever Daddywould go, the family would follow. He said, ‘I thought you would have your fling with country living for the first few years of our marriage, and then we could move on.’ ”
    “Oh, the man does not get it, does he? He’s thinking you’re going to raise your babies in the city? And what? They’ll learn what a tree is when the nanny takes them to Central Park once a week? Where is his mind?” Mindy asked, ripping open the wrapper on a package of honey roasted peanuts. “The man is only thinking of himself, which is, of course, a prerequisite for being a man.”
    Mindy had been married to Leon for almost a year now. He was a gentle giant who taught science at Nelson High and catered to Mindy’s every whim. She adored him, and they made a darling couple. Leon was a foot or more taller than Mindy and appeared most content when he stood beside her, his arm resting on her shoulder, showing off his cute little wife to the world. He had reason to feel proud. Mindy was a beautiful woman with glittering dark eyes full of spunk.
    “I hope you told Jeffrey to go lay an egg!” Mindy spouted.
    “I didn’t tell him anything. We’re still talking things through. It’s very complicated.”
    “Why should it be complicated? You meet someone, you get to know him, you fall in love, and you get married. What’s to work out?”
    “Plenty.”
    “You have my prayers, girlfriend,” Mindy said, rising to clear her spot at the employee lunch table and return to work. “You may not have my excellent taste in men, but you have my prayers.”
    “Thanks. I have a feeling I’ll need every bit of them.”
    Lauren took the elevator up to the first floor with Mindy. The two of them returned to their teller windows and opened up for their afternoon of nonstop business. The last few daysof the month were always the busiest, and this week promised to be a hummer.
    Jeff called Lauren on Monday afternoon and asked if she wanted to get together to talk that evening. She told him she needed some more time to think. He said that Garry had asked him to give a final decision by the end of the week. Jeff’s final words were, “So if you could try to hurry your part of this decision along, I’d appreciate it.”
    His words stung. Lauren was not one to decide anything in a snap. She needed time to weigh out all the options, to think through every possible scenario, to make sure the conclusion she ended up with was one she could live with. That’s why her hair was such a complex problem for her. She had thought through the idea of a perm for several days before she made the appointment. Then she had postponed the appointment for a week to allow herself time to change her mind. Everything inside her had said to go for it. She had, and the result was a disaster.
    If she couldn’t trust her judgment on her hair and salon choice, how could she trust her choice of a husband? Or where she would live for the rest of her life? Hadn’t her order at Giovanni’s taught her the folly of choosing “the special” without considering all the other options? She