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FRIDAY MORNING I ith that blank feeling I’d had lately Nothing specific to do, nowhere particular to go No one expectedcuts had meant I’d only been part-tily strong feeling I wouldn’t be throwing my lot in with Mother’s at Select Realty, so I wouldn’t be studying forin bed drowsily was not such a pleasure if it wasn’t illicit, even with Madeleine’s heavy war Before, I’d used this time to map out my day Now the time lay like a wasteland before ht, didn’t want to feel again the alternating apprehension and attraction Martin Bartell aroused in me

So I scolded myself out of bed, down the stairs, and popped an exercise video into the VCR after switching on the coffeepot I stretched and bent and hopped around obediently, grudging every necessaryroutine with appalled fascination

Now that I was thirty, calories were no longer burning themselves off quite so easily Three tieous exercise clothes, went to the newly opened Athletic Club and did aerobics Mackie Knight, Franklin Farrell, and Donnie Greenhouse, plus a host of other Lawrencetonians, ran or biked every evening I’d seen Franklin’s cohort, Terry Sternholtz, out "poalking" with Eileen My olfer Al to keep herorder and her body in the proper shape So I’d succurace and less enthusiasm

At least I felt I’d earned my coffee and toast, andat houses seriously I needed a project, and finding a house I really liked would do Jane’s books and the few things from her house I’d wanted to keep were stacked in odd places around the town-house, and I was beginning to feel claustrophobic Mother had hinted heavily that Jane’s dining room set would be welcome in her third bedrooo through Select Realty, and I didn’t think I ought to have Mother showing me around Eileen, Idella, or Mackie? Mackie could use the vote of confidence, I reflected, standing bent at the waist withdown so I could dry the bottoainst Mackie, I never had been too crazy about him, either I didn’t think it was because he was black or because he was male I just wasn’t that comfortable with him On the other hand, Eileen was smart and sometimes funny, but too bossy Idella eet and could leave you alone when you needed to think, but she was no fun at all

After a moment’s consideration, I chose Eileen I phoned the office

Patty said she wasn’t in

I looked up Eileen’s hoer

"Hello?"

"May I speak to Eileen, please?"

"May I tell her who’s calling?"

"Roe Teagarden" Who the hell was this? Eileen’s personal home secretary? On the other hand, it wasn’t exactly my business

Eileen finally came on the line

"Hi, Eileen I’ve decided to starta house of my own Can you showfor?"

Oh Well, four walls and a roofI began speaking as I thought "I want at least three bedrooms, because I need a room for a library I want a kitchen with some counter space" The townhouse was definitely deficient in that departe closet" For all my new clothes "I want at least two bathrooms" Why not? One could always be kept pretty for company "And not lots of traffic" For Madeleine, eaving around e do you have into an investment banker about what I would have to live on if I didn’t use any of Jane’s capital But I could buy the house outright and then invest the rest, or I could put the money from the sale of Jane’s house down on the new placeI let all this swirl around in my head, and then an answer popped to the top ofup to theof a fortune-telling ball

"Okay," Eileen said "Seventy-five to ninety-five gives us soe since Golfwhite closed its factory here" Golfwhite--which, logically enough,accessories--had closed its Lawrenceton factory and er factory in Florida

"I don’t really need anything awfully big or i," I told Eileen, assailed by sudden doubts

"Don’t worry, Roe If you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it," she said dryly "Let’s get a start toet lined up in that tireen blouse and navy blue pants and sweater, I had nothing better to do than drop in on my old friend Susu Saxby Hunter The house she’d inherited from her parents was in the oldest part of Lawrenceton The house had been built in the last quarter of the previous century, and had charible closets, and wide halls, a feature I was especially fond of for soreat location for bookshelves, and Susu asting a whole lot of pris to worry about, I found out thatbills were extortionate, drafts were inescapable, curtains had to be custo was of standard size, and all the electric wiring had had to be replaced recently To say nothing of the antiquated toilets and tubs that Susu had just replaced

"But you love this house, don’t you?" I said, sitting across from Susu at her "country pine" kitchen table Susu’s kitchen was so heavily "country," including a pie safe in the corner (lovingly refinished and containing no pies whatsoever), that you expected a goose to walk in with a blue bow around its neck

"Yes," she confessed, putting out her third cigarette "My great-grandparents built it when they were first married, and then my parents inherited and they redid it, and now I’uess I alill be It’s lucky Ji it would be better if he did is if he were a licensed electrician Or had a fabric store Want so I’d have to view the renovated bathroo?"

Susu didn’t look quite as happy as she had when discussing the house "Roe, since we’ve been friends a long time, I’ll tell youI’oes to work, and he works hard He’s really built the business up And he goes to Rotary, and he goes to church, and he coaches little Jioes to Bethany’s piano recitals But so " Her voice trailed off uncertainly, and she stared down at her sarette

"What, Susu?" I asked quietly, suddenly feeling a return of ht, blond, plump, scared woman

"His heart’s not in it," she said sih "I know that sounds stupid "

Actually, she sounded quite perceptive, so sort of an early ently

"Of course, you’re probably right," Susu said, obviously embarrassed by her own frankness "Come see how I decorated Bethany’s rooer before I know it Roe, I expect her to tell me any day that she’s started her periods!"

"Oh, no!"

And we oohed and aahed our way up the stairs to Bethany’s pretty-as-a-picture roos like favorite dolls--but the dolls were sharing space with posters of sullen young men in leather Then we viewed Little Jim’s room, with its duck-laden wallpaper and n "ene that requires duck-killing

Then we moved on to Sally and Jim’s room, resplendent with chintz and framed needlework, an antique cedar chest, and ruffled pillows on the beds A picture fro table, one of the whole carefully arranged wedding party

"There you are, Roe, second from the end! Wasn’t that a wonderful day?" Susu’s pink fingernail landed on ht that day back tothe dreadful lavender ruffled bridesmaid’s dress had been, andalavender ribbon My best friend, Aet-up because of her height and longer neck, and her smile was unreserved Susu herself, radiant in fully deserved white, was gorgeous, and I told her so now "That was the wedding of the year," I said, s a little "You were the first of us to be married We were so envious"

Thethe first, momentarily warmed Susu’s face "Jimmy was so handsome," she said quietly

Yes, he had been