Page 14 of Across the Universe

“I hate that I like her,” Jo says. She holds her hands up as she walks, then lets them fall to her sides. “It would be so much easier if she was this gorgeous villain who I could despise and feel jealous about. But she’s a really smart, nice woman.”

“Hmm,” Frankie says. She sounds dubious. “Smart and nice are potentially more dangerous than just one-dimensional and sexy.”

“You think?”

“I know.” Frankie stops walking at the foot of Jo’s driveway and Jo pauses two feet away from her. “I once dated a boy in high school, and I thought he was the love of my life.”

Jo tilts her head to one side. “Well, we all think our high school boyfriends are the loves of our lives.”

“But Raymond was something—he really was,” Frankie says. “Anyway, his family had this group of church friends, like a bunch of families, and they were always together. He’d been friends with May since they were kids, and I heard alllll about her. ‘May this, May that,’” she says, using a slightly mocking voice, “and then one day I met her. I’d always been most jealous of girls who I thought were prettier than I was, but I’d sort of written May off as this nice, bookish girl who went to church with Ray. Wrong. Shewasall those things, but she was also pretty in this way that was just… simple. Even I could see it.”

“Uh oh.”

“Exactly. Ray invited me to a big dinner with all the families, and I picked her out right away. But it wasn’t her beauty that clued me in to which girl was May. Do you know what it was?”

Jo shakes her head slowly.

“It was the way Ray looked at her. I knew immediately. There was something in his eyes, and I knew he’d never look at me that way.” She drops her cigarette on the pavement and crushes it beneath her foot.

“Okay, this story does not make me feel any better.” Jo presses her lips together.

“Do you think Bill looks at Jeanie the way Ray looked at May? And for the record, yes, ‘Ray and May.’Andthey got married and had five kids. But I digress. Do you think he looks at Jeanie like that?”

Jo doesn’t answer—at least not out loud. For Frankie’s benefit, she pretends to consider this as they stand there, but with spotless timing, Bill opens the front door and turns on the porch light.

“I should go,” Jo says in a near-whisper. “Talk to you tomorrow?”

“Sure thing. Talk to you tomorrow, babe.” Frankie leans in and gives her a quick peck on the cheek and a look of concern as they part. “Sleep well.”

CHAPTER5

Bill

"You look uncomfortable."

"Do I?"

"Yes, Bill, you do." Dr. Sheinbaum is standing near the window of her office, arms folded as she watches him shift around in his chair. "Did you do what I asked you to do this week?"

"Talk to my wife about her dreams?" The slightest feeling of derision creeps into his voice, and he squelches it immediately. After all, he doesn't feel that Jo and her feelings are inconsequential, he just feels… well, he isn't entirely sure what he feels. Maybe that she would be better served by talking to Frankie about her feelings?

"Yes," Dr. Sheinbaum says, finally sitting in her chair.

Bill has wondered whether her restlessness has anything to do with her not wanting to fall asleep as she sits and listens to yet another stranger unpack his or her problems in her warm, mellow office. He glances around at the peachy-amber color of the walls; the perfectly faded and worn Oriental rug on the floor; the heavy wooden tables; the gold-framed paintings and certificates from medical schools that sayDr. Eve Sheinbaumin script lettering.

"I talked to her," he says reluctantly. Right now, he can't decide what's insulting his manhood more: that he actually poured Jo a glass of wine and asked her about whether she'd had to defer any of her own dreams to marry him, or that he now has to recount this conversation for a woman he knows nothing about--a woman who most likely goes home and laughs about his problems with her husband over dinner.

"Are you married, Dr. Sheinbaum?" Bill asks, suddenly realizing that it might be easier to talk to her if he knows something about her personal life. "If you don't mind my asking." He's already noticed that she wears a ring on the middle finger of her left hand rather than the ring finger.

She smiles placidly. "No, I am not, Bill." Her face tells him that the number of questions he'll be allowed to ask is extremely limited, but also that this isn't the first time a patient has inquired about her personal life. Dr. Sheinbaum says no more, but waits for him to go on.

"Well." Bill clears his throat. "I talked to her, and I thought you might know, if you'd been married yourself, that opening up a touchy-feely conversation can be a bit of a mixed bag."

"It certainly can."

Bill lets his eyes stray toward the window. "Anyhow, I asked her whether she'd given up anything when we got married. If maybe she would have preferred to carry on as a secretary instead of marrying and having children."

Dr. Sheinbaum lifts one eyebrow gracefully, but does not interrupt.

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