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were happy with what they were doing, so it didn’t matter. And they knew it was only temporary. After Bill graduated, they’d have more time.
    He was in the process of applying to churches at the moment. He had written to dozens of Episcopal churches in the city and nearby suburbs, hoping to find one that needed a young minister freshly out of school. He didn’t want to commute for many hours a day, and where he worked had to be close to the city for Jenny’s career. She was too busy and had too many clients and projects to commute. And everything she did was based in New York. She ran from one meeting to the next all day, looking at new designs, consulting with her clients about fabrics, discussing the direction they were taking with the next collection, and new trends. Bill knew he couldn’t consider a job that was too far away. But so far, no one had offered him one. He had recently listed himself with a service that sent out inquiries about positions in churches all over the United States, but hehad been very clear that he had to stay in New York. And every place he had applied to in the city had turned him down. They had no openings and the same was true in the suburbs closest to New York. He wasn’t discouraged yet, he was sure that something would turn up. He had applied to a few churches in Connecticut and New Jersey, but nothing had panned out there yet either. He had feelers out all over the place.
    He was working on his thesis one afternoon when his brother Tom called and invited him to lunch the next day. Bill rarely enjoyed contact with his family, but he didn’t want to alienate them any further, and he tried to see them whenever he could. Tom was usually more reasonable than Peter or his father, although he didn’t pretend to understand the choices his younger brother had made—neither his choice of wife, nor his decision to become a minister. It seemed like a terrible waste of a bright legal mind and an excellent legal education and the social connections he had. And they needed him at the firm. Bill’s radical break with family tradition was incomprehensible to Tom.
    In an effort to keep the channels of communication open, Tom and Bill met for lunch at “21” the next day. It was familiar turf for both of them, and a restaurant they both liked and had enjoyed going to since they were boys.
    “So what are you up to these days?” Tom asked, sounding cordial, after they both ordered a glass of wine. The two brothers were ten years apart. Tom had just turned forty-four, and it always shocked Bill now to realize that his brother was middle-aged, and even Peter would be turning forty in a few months. And each of his brothershad two children, while he and Jenny had none. Their lives and focus seemed very different. And even more shocking to Bill, Tom’s younger son was in high school, and his older boy had just started college. Bill told Jenny that it made him feel old, even though he was only thirty-four. At least his brother Peter’s children were considerably younger.
    “I’m working on my thesis,” Bill said in answer to his brother’s question. “It’s taking me forever.”
    “Have you found a job yet?” Tom asked him casually, and Bill shook his head.
    “There are waiting lists a mile long for churches in the city, and the suburbs aren’t much better. And we can’t get too far out of town. I can’t do that to Jenny. She has too much work.” Tom nodded, well aware that she was some kind of hotshot in the field of fashion, although he had no exact idea of what her job was. He knew she ran her own business, but it always sounded frivolous to him. It was not a business that interested him.
    “Do you two ever think about having kids, or is that not in the picture?” Tom asked Bill for the first time. He had no idea that they had been trying to get pregnant for the last two years, but Bill didn’t tell him that. Jenny was discouraged about it, but her job was stressful, and she was