to crop it short, close to her face, taking care not to be hasty so that it doesn’t look ragged or like an amateur chop job. In a few minutes, she’ll dye it a nondescript brown. She does not want to be conspicuous. She just can’t let that happen. She removes her make-up,
Aspic . Bayber r y.
Cathedral. Dandelion.
Echelon. Felicity.
Guru. Hijack. Ingenious. Jacks. Kelly. Louse . Mesmerize. Noodle. Octopus. Practical. Quell.
Stan Lee Werlin | Aspic Bayberry Cathedral
Denise one last time, and then she’s on her way. Denise has sent her parents off to Trenton, their car packed with most of her clothing, her books and belongings spilling out of odd little boxes and supermarket bags. She tells them she wants to use the day of grace before seniors have to leave the dorm to hang out with a few other friends who are also staying the night. In the euphoria of the day, they’re completely oblivious to her true state of mind. Her father will pick her up at the train station in Trenton early the next evening. And then there’s Jonathan. He’ll spend the summer at home in Philadelphia working a boring clerical job in his father’s business, hoping that one of the waiting lists will open up. Just before he leaves, he makes Denise promise that she’ll call as soon as she gets home. He wrestles with her playfully, trying to convince her to make love one last time in the dorm, but her mind is already elsewhere and eventually he gives up the pursuit. We’ll see each other every weekend, he says. Maybe more. It’s such a short drive. We’ll get an apartment where I get into B school. She lets him think whatever he wants. When everyone is gone, Denise settles down to work. Her hair, a lustrous white blonde that she has been keeping long for over two years, has to go. She does her best
Rotation. Sandman. Tintinnabulation. Undulation.
Ve r i s i m i l i t u d e . Wombat. Xenophobic.
Youthful. Zookeeper.
tweezes out most of her eyebrows, cuts her fingernails short and takes off her rings and the oversized earrings she loves to wear. They might be one of the first things someone would mention in a description of her. She tosses these things into the plastic bag
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