only bear an hour at a time, whereas with an upright job she could stretch it to two hours before she had to lay down her tools and take herself trembling to bed for an hour or two. On the whole, however, physical work, done with care, seemed actually to help, particularly in the fresh air. Today she had been digging and weeding for nearly three hours before the doorbell interrupted, she saw as she glanced at the clock on her way through the living room. It looked as though she was going to pay for the exertion.
Kate picked up the loose knit cap she had taken to keeping on the table in the hallway and pulled it on as she went to answer the door. At first she saw nothing through the peephole; then, with a growing and fatalistic sense of deja vu, she looked down, and there she saw the top of a head of black hair, neatly parted. She slid the bolt and opened the door.
'Morning, Jules.'
'Uh-oh, you're not feeling well.'
'I'm okay.'
'Are you mad at me, then?'
'Why would I be mad at you?'
'It's just that you usually say, 'Hey, J.' 'Good morning, Jules' sounds so formal.'
'So I'm feeling formal. Don't I look formal?'
Jules examined her muddy, sweat-stained clothing and grubby bare legs. 'No, you don't. We tried to call, but we kept getting your machine, so we thought we'd come by anyway. Can I come in?'
'Who's 'we'?'
'Al.' Jules turned and waved at the road. Kate bent to look and saw Al's car pull out from the curb and drive away. She cursed under her breath as Jules continued. 'He has to pick something up from the office. I wonder why you call it an office when it's just that big room you guys share. Anyway, I wanted to say hi, so he said he'd drop me and come back. He won't be long. Are you sure you're feeling okay? You don't look like it.'
'I'm fine. Come on in, Jules.'
'I like that hat,' Jules said, looking over her shoulder as she headed for the kitchen. 'Where did you get it?'
'A friend made it for me. It hides the stubble.'
'Can I see?' Jules asked, turning to face her, going suddenly serious.
'Not much to see,' Kate said, but she pulled the cap off anyway and dropped it on the table. Rosalyn's partner, Maj, a woman of many talents and with a recipe for killer tiramisu, had come by the house with it and a pair of electrical clippers the week before. The resulting haircut was not all that much shorter than Kate's last one, though slightly lopsided, but it necessarily revealed too much of the still-clear lines where the surgeons had cut a flap in the skin to give access to the bone below. Maj's hat was pretty, but there was angora in it, and the damn thing itched. She pretended not to feel the girl's eyes on her as she reached for two glasses and took a bottle of juice from the refrigerator.
'You like cherry cider?' she asked.
'Sure, I guess. They didn't have to put a metal plate in your head, did they?' Jules demanded.
'No. They thought they might, but it wasn't that bad.'
'That's good. A friend of mine has an uncle with a big plate in his skull. He has to carry a letter from his doctor around with him, because he sets off metal detectors.'
Kate came near to laughing at the thought of the number of detectors she went through in the course of a week, all of them going off madly in her wake.
Jules absently accepted the glass of cider that Kate handed her, but her mind was still on the topic of the consequences of metal plates. 'That must be a real pain,' she reflected.
'It must be,' Kate agreed seriously, and sat down. 'It's good to see you. How've you been? How's Josh? Have you seen Dio since he got out of the hospital? And why aren't you in school?'
'It's a half day, for finals week. Dio's fine. And I haven't seen Josh in a while, except in school, of course. He has a girlfriend.' She sounded disgusted.
'I thought you were a girlfriend.'
'I was a friend. Am a friend still, but he's busy. He'll get over it,' she said, as if talking about the flu, which Kate thought reasonable enough.
'What's your shirt say today?' Kate asked. Jules held the lapels of her windbreaker open so Kate could see the writing, and when she saw the words, she began to laugh.
'Good, huh?'
'It's great.' Kate did not tell her she had seen it before, worn by women who intended a rather different take on the message, but it was still a fine shirt: A WOMAN WITHOUT A MAN IS LIKE A FISH WITHOUT A BICYCLE.
Kate was about to ask about the word for the day when the girl blurted out, 'Can I come and stay with you when Mom and Al go on their honeymoon?'
Kate opened her mouth, then shut it again.
'They were going to take me with them to Baja, and at first I thought it sounded great, but then I realized it was impossible. Talk about spare wheels.' Kate wondered if she was hearing the voice of a friend behind the girl's words, that devastating peer criticism that could reduce even a self-contained person like Jules to a quivering mass. 'Taking the kid along on a honeymoon,' Jules said dismissively, her demeanor cool but with a clear thread of discomfort through it, and Kate stood up to take a random plate of food from the refrigerator in order to hide her smile. Jules, she guessed, had belatedly connected the traditional activities of a honeymoon couple with her mother and the amiable cop she was marrying; the mortification when her friends pointed this out must have been extreme.
Still. 'I don't know when I'll be going back to work, Jules. I couldn't have you here alone while I'm out. They can be long days.'
'Do you know when you'll be going back?'
'I see the doctor tomorrow afternoon. What were you planning on doing if I wasn't available?'
'Staying with Rosa, I guess.'
'Or have Trini the airhead stay with you?'
'Not her. She's in trouble. She got caught shoplifting the day after Thanksgiving, and Mom won't have her in the house.'
'Don't you have any family?' Kate hoped she hadn't sounded too plaintive, but Jules seemed not to have noticed.
'Mom has some relatives in Hong Kong, but nobody here. My father's dead,' she said in a tight voice. 'I don't know if there's anyone on his side, but Mom says they all hated her. Anyway, there's nobody to stay with.'
'Have you met Al's kids? Not to stay with. I just wondered if you'd met them.'
Jules relaxed suddenly and grinned. 'You mean my sister- and brother-to-be? I met her - she's really cool. Him - Sean - I'll meet this weekend.'
'They're coming up for the wedding?'
'Sure.'
'I'm glad to hear it.'
'It's important to Al, I know. Kate, do you think I should keep calling him Al if he's my mother's husband? I don't know if I could call him Daddy.'
'Give it time,' Kate suggested mildly. '
'I guess. Maybe he'd rather be just Al.'
'I think, if you're asking me, that Al Hawkin would burst with pride if you took to calling him Dad, but I'm also sure he wouldn't want to push it. He loves you very much.'
Jules became very interested in the trace of cider in the bottom of her glass. 'He must be nuts,' she muttered.
'Nuts because he loves you? Jules, you're one of the greatest people I've ever met.'
'You don't know me,' the girl said darkly.
'I know you better than you think I do.' At this, Jules shot her a hard look composed of equal parts suspicion and apprehension, with a dash of hope thrown in. However, Kate had done about all she could just then. All the
