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"Indeed," said Mrs Wattlesbrook
Blunder, Jane thought, glancing at her partner What must he think of her? A woman who memorized Austen books and played dress-up? She’d enjoyed a bit of flirting as they danced, but she was too eain When they finished, he left the way he’d coht on her hardloose and pretty in her clean white chelish countryside was fra, blue and purple, abstract in the low light She gri how fun it had been until she’d spoiled it at the end She didn’t want that for this experience She needed a good ending, the best ending, though her ie up exactly what that should be
The endings of all her relationships had displaced any previous loveliness In memory, the jokes faded, the personalities of the various boyfriends blurred together, weekend trips were truncated in thought to as long as it took her to scratch her neck The entire relationship was condensed and refor
Here she was at the beginning of so board She was ready to plunge Good-bye to her aard list of numbered boyfriends and her mutated, Austen-inspired intensity that had pushed her fro to another She was determined that this vacation, this holiday, unlike any of her relationships, would have a very good ending
Let‘s glance back a moment and remember: Jane’s First Love
Alex Ripley, AGE FOUR
Alex declared to Jane’s preschool teachers, both their parents, and Cindy (the girl with self-cut bangs) that he and Jane wouldhunt in the park, he ran with Jane behind a tree
"I want to give you soether forever"
He kissed her on the lips seven ti A soft chicken
That suain
dddday 1
THE NEXT MORNING AFTER A huge, e! she thought), her trunk fastened to the back Mrs Wattlesbrook stood in the doorway, dabbing a handkerchief to her dry eyes
"Do have a good time, Miss Erstwhile, and reo out!"
The day was gray, and patchy rain nudged the carriage roof Jane watched the hilly country bounce by, a row of river trees huddling in a line The fresh landscape encouraged her artist’s eye to see in paint colors--leaves of sap green, the distant roofs of a small town in burnt uate and guard station, and rolled up an unpaved private drive The carriage slowed then halted in front of a stately Georgians It looked clean and square and full of so secret and wonderful, a solidly wrapped present
"That’s a fair prospect," Jane breathed, giving herself chills