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anything went wrong, Willie would take care of it. But what would she do now? Call down to Rodney, who would come up the stairs, chat with her, but have no idea what to do? Well, perhaps it wouldn’t happen.
    More likely, she decided darkly, it would. Then, as the elevator rattled safely to a stop and released her from its cage, she put the thought out of her mind. “You’re taking me for a walk,” she announced to Anthony Fleming, who was looking at her with a bemused expression that told her he probably wouldn’t argue with her. “It’s a beautiful day, and it would be a shame to waste it.”
    “And suppose I had other plans?” Fleming asked, putting on a severe expression that Irene saw through in an instant.
    “Then you would cancel them,” she announced. “How much older than you do you think I am?”
    Fleming shrugged noncommittally. “A few years.”
    “A few decades, you mean,” Irene shot back tartly. “At least that’s how I feel today. And since that’s how I feel, I’m going to demand the privilege of age, and let you take me for a stroll through the park. We shall observe nature in its full bloom, and the vigor of youth. Perhaps it will make me feel better.”
    Anthony Fleming shrugged helplessly at Rodney, who was grinning from his kiosk, and held the front door open for Irene. “Where are we going? Or are we just wandering?”
    “Children,” Irene said, turning south. “Whenever I start feeling this old, I always like to watch children.”
    “Maybe you should have had some of your own,” Fleming observed.
    “Wanting to watch children is one thing. Wanting to have them is entirely another.” She sighed heavily. “And if my child got sick, I don’t know how I’d handle it.”
    “You’d handle it like everyone else does,” Anthony assured her. “You’d get through it.”
    “But it must be so hard.”
    There was a long silence, but then Anthony Fleming nodded in assent. “It is,” he agreed. “It’s very hard indeed.”

    Caroline and Laurie were still a couple of hundred yards from the playground when a voice called out from behind them. “Laurie? Laurie! Wait up!”
    Turning, Caroline saw Amber Blaisdell hurrying toward them. A blonde girl whose even-featured face was framed in the same pageboy haircut her mother wore, Amber was clad in Bermuda shorts and a white blouse with a sweater tied over her shoulders—exactly the same preppy uniform that half the girls at Laurie’s former school habitually wore when they weren’t wearing the school uniform itself.
    “Hey, Amber,” Laurie said as the other girl caught up with them.
    “A bunch of us are going to the Russian Tea Room for lunch! Want to go?”
    Caroline saw a flash of anticipation cross Laurie’s face, but it faded almost as quickly as it came. “I—I don’t think so,” she said. “I think I’m gonna hang with my mom.”
    “Oh, come on!” Amber urged. “It’ll be fun.” Her voice took on a slight edge. “Since you changed schools, we hardly ever see you anymore.”
    A look of uncertainty passed over Laurie’s features. “It’s not that.”
    “What is it?” Amber pressed. “You never want to do anything anymore.” She glanced at the small group of girls who were watching the interaction between herself and Laurie. “Some of the kids are starting to talk.”
    Laurie’s eyes flicked toward the group of her former classmates. “Talk about what?”
    Amber hesitated, as if not sure she should repeat what her friends were saying, but then decided to face it head on. “It just seems like you don’t want to be our friend anymore, that’s all.”
    “I want to be,” Laurie began. “I just—”
    But before she could finish, someone called out to Amber. “Are you coming? We’re going to be late.”
    Amber looked at Laurie one last time. “Come on,” she urged. “Come with us.”
    But still Laurie shook her head, and a second later Amber had disappeared into the gaggle of her friends. Caroline