…Anyway, we wouldn’t go on about this Barbie hair thing, except it’s how the trouble got started that day. Paige, being Ken, said she wasn’t interested in dating Linda’s bubble-cut Barbie. “That’s not fair,” Linda protested. Paige gave no reply. Instead, she made Ken stroll right past Linda’s Barbie without a look. Linda’s face froze…

This is Carol speaking. I’m trying to bring back that day as vividly as possible. But it’s not easy to recover my eight-year-old self.  My memory, especially of those years, is unreliable. Also, I usually try to stop my conscious mind from straying to childhood. When particular images break through, it becomes hard for me…

So, we know that Carol didn’t go home. She hid in the shrubbery between the houses, but her mother found her. Carol’s eyes were red and puffy when her mother parted the leaves to see her daughter’s face. So it was hard to pretend nothing had happened. Which is what Carol normally would do. She…

Linda here. I’m sitting in my motel room and wondering what I’m doing back in this town where I always feel so estranged. I feel like heading home to New York, but I won’t. So, about our last conversation. Not one of us wanted to say it out loud, the thing that happened, the thing…

A day since our last meetup and we’re in Linda’s room at the airport Holiday Inn, wondering what happens next. The incident has been told but without spoken words. We spoke of fences, dry weather, parched lawns, and Barbies. We talked our way up to the incident, then acknowledged it wordlessly, as though words were…

I wish Linda had not come. It should have been Carol and me. I can admit it here – when I look at Linda, I feel bitter. She went to a famous university, married a nice guy, and had the career and perfect kids. And she always, I mean always, has a flight outta here.…