Soon Larissa would be asleep. She felt herself drifting, even as excitement built up in her from the feel of his man's body on top of her, from the smell of his liquored-up breath, from his lips on her lips, on her throat. "I'll think about it," she said. It was like a placeholder to end the conversation. I'll think about it meant she would endeavor never to give it another thought. Theatrically she moaned. Jared forgot about theater, as she hoped he would.

3.

Aisle 12

The cast came off a few days later and Larissa limped with a walking stick to her car, like Uriah Heep, like her grandmother who had died aged ninety-eight, and then drove to Pingry and finished painting black the backdrop for Desdemona's death, went to the library, got some books for Asher's school project on Abraham Lincoln, and then dropped by Nee Dells to see if there were any new boots (there weren't), afterward driving to Panera Bakery in Madison to get a mozzarella and pepper baguette and chicken noodle soup. After finishing lunch, she still had an hour left before Michelangelo. This day and every day was punctuated by the regimen of her children. When she was a kid, all she and Che wanted was to be free of school; little did Larissa realize that she'd never be free of it, that morning, afternoon and night, the homework, the projects, the notes home, the agenda books, the signatures on tests, the packed lunches, the bought lunches, the chaperones and the school trips, the exams and the #2 pencils, the rulers and compa.s.ses and looseleaf paper, the parent-teacher conferences, all of it, wasn't just twelve years of her life. No. It was the rest of her life, the better part of the better part of her life. Sure, eventually it stopped, but when it stopped, you stopped too. Larissa would be over fifty when the last child would graduate high school, and who said it would be over by then? Who said that her daughter wouldn't be back home, living as a single mother in the room upstairs, and suddenly it was playgroup and kindergarten and first grade again, and Larissa would be sixty, picking up her grandkids from school, still looking at her watch, saying, two hours left, one hour left, thirty minutes left.

How could Ezra not see how impossible it was for her to take on theater, too? What did mothers who worked outside the home do? Did their bodies also shift slightly downward, as if some perverse internal clock was ringing its alarm at thema"it's 2:30. It's 3:00, it's school bus time. Every day. Every year. Whatever it was they were doing, did they also lift their heads from their desks and acknowledge that while they were in their cubicles, their children were getting off the bus to come home to a house where their mothers weren't?

Larissa wouldn't have her life any other way. She would not pay someone else to take care of her kids to rehea.r.s.e plays with other people's children whose mothers were working.

Today she had an hour. Not enough time to choose, edit, cast and direct a play for spring. It was bitterly cold. She drove to Stop&Shop instead. She went because she needed detergent. Jared needed tissues for his office and some chewy caramels for his candy jar. Asher needed posterboard and glue, and Michelangelo colored pencils (of course he did). Emily needed her own shampoo because the family's Pantene Smooth and Sleek just wouldn't do. Larissa parked by the cemetery again, hurrying in from the cold.

She was scheduled like a mother. Every minute of her life was accounted for.

Every minute, except for the tiny present one after Panera and before Michelangelo's bus.

She was getting laundry detergent in aisle 12 when she heard his voice.

"Hey, what are you doing here," he said, like a voiceover narrative track, "in the laundry aisle?"

He was pushing his own cart, in which he had nothing but three containers of sushi and some dried almonds. She switched her gaze from his cart to him.

"Uma"getting laundry?" Why did he smile like that was amusing? "Family's run out." She got that in there. Family.

Larissa wasn't trying to be coy. She wasn't trying to be much of anything. She actually was shopping for her family. She had just finished lunch in Panera down the street. She liked Panera. Why did she have to explain herself?

"How's your ankle?"

"Good," she replied. "Cast came off."

"I see that. Feeling better?"

"Meh." She stood awkwardly next to the fabric softener. The aisle smelled faintly of fake lavender. Best to go get some food now.

Larissa got some softener just in case, since she was standing right next to it. Got big containers, two of them, so she wouldn't have to come back to aisle 12 anytime soon, and also to show him that she had a family that needed giant amounts of fabric softener because she was a good mother and softened their laundered clothes. He rolled his cart down the aisle beside her. He was wearing his torn jeans, brown boots, brown leather. His hair didn't look brushed. He looked underfed in that skinny young guy way when they can't keep the weight on no matter what they do.

"You ride in this weather?" she asked him. "That's crazy."

"Yeah. It is pretty crazy. I'm not used to it." He pointed to his splotched face. "I get windburn."

Her mother taught her to be polite so Larissa said she couldn't tell. But where was he from that he wasn't used to it? One winter in Jersey and you pretty much knew what to expect. She didn't ask.

When she turned to aisle 13, to the frozen section and the bread, he turned, too. She didn't need any frozen food. She bought some anyway. Frozen hash browns, frozen broccoli, ice cream. And some frozen pizza since that's what they were having for dinner tonight. They got in line, he right behind her. Outside in the stinging sunshine, he asked where she was parked and they both saw she was parked close to his bike.

"You're like me," he said. "You don't want to forget where you left your transportation." His fingerless gloves clutched the paper bag full of sushi.

"Can't imagine you'd forget where you parked that," Larissa said, pointing. "I don't know much about motorcycles." Riskaverse and proud of it. "But it looks nice."

He looked amused. "Well, you're right. It is a nice bike. It's a Ducati Sportcla.s.sic."

Her face didn't change; she couldn't even fake being impressed. "You bought it new?"

"Nah, it's way expensive. It was my old man's. I got it when he died."

"Oh." She studied him closer. "Sorry."

"Yeah, but," he said, "look at the bike." He raised his eyebrows and smiled, slightly ironically, but maybe not. Slightly ruefully, but maybe not.

He helped her again, the heavy detergent, the fabric softeners, the 12-pack of Diet c.o.ke. "Someone drinks a lot of soda in your house," he remarked. "All that carbon dioxide is terrible for your metabolism, you know."

"What?"

"Oh, yeah. It slows down your Krebs cycle to a crawl. It interferes with the enzyme that receives the oxygen molecule. Terrible if you're trying to lose weight. What, you didn't know?"

"I didn't know," she said slowly, frowning at him. "How do you know?"

"Ninth grade bio." Instead of frowning, he smiled. "Not that you should care about losing weight," he said. "See ya. Keep warm."

"Yeah, you too." She wanted to ask him his name, but didn't dare. Ninth grade bio!

Bo called as soon as Larissa got home. "My life is being slowly destroyed," she said. "Today she told me she was going blind. Blind! I said, Mother, have you tried your gla.s.ses? They're right on the nightstand. Oh G.o.d. I'm leaving work early today to take her to the eye doctor. Can I come over first?"

"How can you not?" said Larissa. She liked Bo, who was stately and attractive and deliberate in her movements, but what she liked best about Bo was that she could hide herself in the fray of Bo's graceful self-absorption.

4.

"Moisten Your Head with Lubricant"

"Do you refuse to give me an answer?" said Ezra incredulously, cornering her in the kitchen after another late January week pa.s.sed. Her oatmeal chocolate chip cookies would burn if she didn't take them out right now.

"Ezra, excuse me." Oven mitts on, Larissa opened the oven door. d.a.m.n. Overdone by two minutes.

He sighed behind her. "I thought you were going to think about it."

"I have thought about it." She took out a clanging metal cookie rack.

"Well, think some more. Think until you give me the answer I want."

Giggling, she started to sc.r.a.pe the cookies onto a cooling rack. "I can't do it. I don't have the time."

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? You have from eight till two each and every day to dedicate to the unfailing pursuit of theatrical excellence."

"Only in your limited and one-dimensional world," said Larissa, "do I have nothing to do from eight till two."

"Lar," said Jared, pouring drinks and always ready to instigate, "tell our friends how long it takes you to get out of the house."

Larissa stayed quiet!

"How long?" said Ezra. "Thirty minutes?"

"Thirty?" said Jared, raising his eyebrows. "Tell him, Lar."

After veal shank and rice with corn, and everyone full and relaxed at the table, Larissa told them.

Did this seem unreasonable?

Brushing teeth, etc. 5 minutes Shower 15 minutes Drying 5 minutes Drying smaller parts, like ears 5 minutes Lotioning 10 minutes Makeup 20 minutes Getting dressed 10 minutes Hair 30 minutes Jewelry 5 minutes Misc tasks, e.g. shoes, purse 10 minutes Total: 1 hour, 55 minutes "That's without dawdling, making coffee, or doing a single thing for any of the kids," Larissa finished.

"Is this a joke?"

"I don't see what's so funny."

Ezra stammered. "Jared, you allow this?"

"I don't allow it, that's just how long it takes." Jared gazed at Larissa.

"But it takes me fifteen minutes!"

"Ezra," Larissa said calmly, "I've seen you spend longer in the bathroom when you have company."

Ezra whirled to Maggie. "How long does it take me?"

"Fifteen minutes," replied Maggie.

"I shave, five minutes, shower, five minutes, I put on my clothes, five more minutes. Done."

"Yeah. So? What does your business have to do with my business?"

"You weren't always like this. You weren't like this in college!"

"In college, Ezra? We walked around in the same pair of jeans for weeks! We were theater hippies. We prided ourselves on not washing. Things have changed."

"Clearly."

They all tried that Sat.u.r.day night to make Larissa more efficient at getting beautiful so she could become a drama director for Pingry.

"Why do you have to put lotion on?"

"You want me to have scaly skin, Ezra? Like a snake?"

"I don't care either way, but you won't be scaly."

"I will be. My husband likes touching soft skin."

All inebriated eyes turned from wine to the husband.

"I do like the soft skin," admitted the sheepish, grinning husband, his s.h.a.ggy gray-brown hair falling over his forehead, his hand reaching out to scrub Larissa's cheek.

"Why can't you let your hair dry naturally?" suggested Ezra. "You'll cut thirty minutes right there."

"Because I will look a fright." Larissa suddenly remembered the bike dude's disquisition on women and hair, and became uncomfortable, in her own home, recalling laughing at a stranger in the parking lot.

"You can't possibly," said Maggie. "You would look beautiful no matter what. Your hair looks so pretty now."

"Took me forty-five minutes. Thirty to blow dry and fifteen more to get it into a bun that looks casually messy." Larissa gracefully moved on from the freeform poetry of hair. "Why do you want me to be dry, disheveled, down?"

"Because I want you to direct the spring play," said Ezra. "Why do you spend five minutes on jewelry? You don't need jewelry to go to the supermarket, do you?"

"More than anywhere else," Larissa replied. "Obviously you've never been to the supermarket. Do you know how many times I hear, I like your necklace, your earrings, your bracelet?"

"No, how many?" asked Jared, poking her, his eyes glinting.

Pinching Jared's arm, Larissa went on. "How many times I hear, where did you get that beautiful necklace and I say I got it from Jean. Is that what you want, Ezra? Frump me up and run Jean's business out of Summit? Besides," she continued, on a pleasant, non-defensive roll, "Jared buys me my jewelry. You want me not to wear his lovely gifts? Some wife I am."

"You don't wear everything I buy for you," Jared said with a wink.

Stop it, she mouthed to him, winking back. It was Sat.u.r.day night, after all and Larissa had a fair amount of liquid Eros in her.

They worked on her like this the rest of the evening. Here in her present external life, the minutia of hairspray was scrutinized: should she spritz once or twice, and why moisturizer and foundation, while in the other past life, one evening she and Maggie and Ezra, and Evelyn and Malcolm, and even her beloved Jared, had spent 1 hour, 55 minutes figuring out why Psalm 23 sounded so sublime in its King James rendition but less so in successive, though (possibly) more accurate versions.