Laura, honey’s visit to the hairdresser was the highlight of her week, a chance to remake her appearance, however tenuously, into the one she still had in her mind, the image of herself of three decades earlier when her blond hair was thick and long. She was a head turner, as they used to say, and indeed many a head did she turn when she was out and about, doing her errands or simply walking with her girlfriends downtown enjoying summer break on a warm June afternoon. When she spoke, it was momentarily startling, for what emanated from this fair haired twenty something young lady was a voice akin to Lauren Bacall, and even if she was only answering a salesclerk in Modasko’s regarding her dress size or the color of lipstick she wanted to see, the huskiness of her voice led all listeners to assume an air of intrigue about Laura, honey. Unfortunately, as time is wont to do, it marched all over those stunning locks leaving them dry and brittle. Time has no time to wipe its boots. So, while the image of herself in her proverbial mind’s eye remained that of an ingénue coming down the stairs in The Big Sleep, she was actually at the lunch counter in Petrofski’s …show more content…
Back into the sink went her hands to grab another dish, or perhaps a fork, and the soapy sponge routine recommenced. Invariably, however, thoughts intervened between the washing phase and the configuring of dishes in the rack to dry phase, and she would again be lost in memories: “We used to share much in common, Nate and I. I remember our mutual interest in cooking, of my days at Sally’s Short Order Burger Saloon and Nate as a customer. How many burgers I flipped! Five years there I worked, and I remember how Nate loved to eat and how he would ask me for extra potato wedges with his sandwich and for a little extra ice in his Pepsi-Cola and another napkin. That was something we shared, the two of