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marriage. Actually, I think it’s romantic. She sends her regards.”
    “I was looking forward to seeing her,” said Marc. “She was a big sister to me while I was growing up.”
    “And your baby sitter.”
    “And my baby sitter. The only one I can really remember. I think my grandparents had her around almost permanently the first few summers I was with them. Her job was to keep me occupied during the day. Most of the time Ray Elkins was here, too. She had to look after the two of us. I bet that wasn’t an easy job.
    “Later, your mother and I became good friends. She was just enough older that I always looked on her as an adult, but I really cared about her in a little boy way—you know how school boys sometimes fall for their teacher.” Marc tore the tape off the bottom of the box he had just emptied, flattened it, and tossed it onto a pile near the door. “I was really unhappy the summer she got married. I was jealous of the guy that took my buddy away. And before long she had her own baby to sit.” He pulled the tape off the top of another box, gazed at Lisa, and smiled. “You look terrific. I don’t think I’ve seen you since the summer you got married. Let’s hear about you.”
    “I’m good, and you probably know I’m not married.”
    “I heard there were problems, but I didn’t know. How long?”
    “Almost two years. It was clear we wanted different things, and I saw no point in extending the agony. Chris has remarried; they have a new baby. I think that’s what he wanted all along— something real conventional. I was too much of a career woman.”
    “Was the divorce painful?”
    “Painful,” Lisa looked thoughtful. “No, just disappointing. It was just a starter marriage.” Lisa gave him a teasing smile. He liked the smile, relaxed, confident, without tension.
    “Still in advertising?” asked Marc.
    “I’ve taken a six months leave of absence. I’ve had the money Dad left me sitting in a savings account for years. I’m probably chasing ghosts, but I want to spend a summer up here like I did as a kid. I want to see if I can be that happy again.” Lisa looked pensive. Then her expression shifted. “Enough of me, you’re the one with the big breaking news. Big time stock analyst leaves prestigious Wall Street firm and wife and runs away to the woods.”
    “You better get the headlines right. Wife of stock analyst finds true happiness with her psychiatrist.”
    Lisa looked uncomfortable. “Sorry if I was sounding insensitive, I didn’t know.”
    “You weren’t. The marriage had been over for years. But I never seemed to overcome inertia and get out.”
    “Why not?”
    “Well,” continued Marc, “inaction is often the easiest course. She had her life, and I had mine. I would leave for the city early and come back in the evening, often very late. Elaine had her career, her friends, her schedule. So there wasn’t much of a marriage, or even a friendship. I thought there should be more to a relationship, but I wasn’t sure. And most of the time I was too busy to give a damn. The psychiatrist did me a great service. But I’m not here because of the breakup.”
    “You’re on sabbatical?”
    “No. One day I knew I had to get out. I had a friend die of a heart attack, and a few months later another friend died of cancer. I thought—what the hell am I doing here? I moved East because Elaine didn’t think she could survive anywhere besides New York. The rest of the country was too provincial. I never really liked it there. But after a while I stayed on because I didn’t think the firm or the financial world could get along without me. We kid ourselves into believing that we’re indispensable. So to make a long story short, I decided I wanted to be some place that I loved.”
    Lisa laughed. “We’re just like the locals, unemployed or retired. I’m unemployed and you’ve retired…”
    “But I’m not retired. I’m going to set up my computers in the study and be active