One the dock he stood, majestic in his uniform. She felt the baby kick. He walked away slowly, turning back once to wave. She wondered if he would come back in one piece. She wondered if he would come back at all. Then the dock disappeared into the fog, the waterfront, the city, and soon there was nothing but fog.

She had never seen, or heard, or felt such things before. The birds floating in the sky above, the grumbly engine, Grampa's funny boating hat. She felt as if the wind would whip her right out of the boat, but Mommy's hand let her know that it wouldn't happen.

We thought it would be best if we lived up here awhile. We brought Space Food Sticks, apples, and Tang. All we needed then was our cat Willie. John lured him into a bucket with a can of Purina and put a bag over the top. I tied a rope to the handle, and Tommy pulled up the rope, which was hard, because we could see Willie tipping the bucket back and forth in pretty ferocious way.

Celia could make out her husband Alex’s truck, and Betty recognized Leonard      hanging out the passenger- side window, whooping, hollering, and spilling the beer in his hand. But what was that on top of the truck? A dead animal of some kind? And in the back, was that an old refrigerator? They could hear the men’s laughter grow louder and louder as the truck drew nearer, but still, neither woman spoke.

Deciding that lemons could be turned to lemonade; and that Brandon fell squarely into the lemon category for standing her up, Franny bought herself a corsage, put on her dress and heels, and rode to the prom. As she drew closer to the school, she discovered she was quite an individual.

Even though Dad was a prominent cardiologist, whenever we were out and people asked what he did for a living, he told them he was a shoe salesman from Pasadena.

The photo was in a box in her mother’s garage. At first she was surprised by how skinny was back then. Then she thought, how at fourteen, she’d had it all figured      out; boys, careers, friends. She wondered what had happened, then promised herself she’d call Jenny Craig in the morning.

Jacky was afraid of the dog and Mark always said he was yellow, chicken, a scardy-pants. So Jacky pulled up his courage and tried to stand as close as he could to dog so the photo would come back and prove to Mark that he wasn’t no chicken.

“Well,” said Maggie, taking a long drag off her cigarette. “Of course I was absolutely fuming at first. Who wouldn’t be? She was supposedly my best friend. And I thought Rex and I would be married forever,” she paused and took a leisurely sip from her martini, “But I’ve rediscovered myself. I’ve found me. And I’m pretty damn wonderful. Did I mention I’m taking kickboxing down at the club? It’s doing absolute wonders for my thighs”.

She knew about ropes, harnesses, and how to pull herself out of a crevasse with prussic knots. She could walk steep terrain in crampons, self-arrest, and was a regular subscriber to Accidents in North American Mountaineering. But that day,throwing caution to the mountain, she jumped the crevasse unattached. Later, she was unusually tickled that she did.

She wished she could always look the way she hoped she did now. And she wished he were not a boat salesman, but a boat owner. And she wished he weren’t married. But most of all, she wished she could eat coffee Haagen Daaz every night and still fit into these pants.

Amber says he’s moody, and Sierra says he’s “too intense”, but I think he’s neat and I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about me.