There was nobody she could talk to. They didn't know any other gay couples. The girls at the office only talked about their boy friends and husbands. I do this and he did that and then we did so and so-there was no detail they didn't describe. She listened and was silent. But she knew that some of them were restless and unsatisfied and some were guilty about their "normal" love and some were unable to love. Being straight was no guarantee of happiness.

She didn't know any answers. All she knew was that she was happy as long as she had Erika. Making Erika happy seemed even more important than the crazy up-through-the-ceiling pleasure Erika gave her when they were in bed. No, she couldn't believe that anything which made two people so happy was wrong.

She liked to wake in the very early morning, lying against the narrow shelter of Erika's back. There was the low ticking of the alarm clock and Erika's rhythmic breathing and sometimes the blowing of a light spring rain against the window. A strip of curtain fluttered in the pre-dawn breeze.

Deeply content, she would fall asleep again. This was the center of the world. There were only two persons in it, Erika and Kate.

CHAPTER 21

“Erik.”

"Yes, darling."

"What about summer?"

Erika closed her book, marking the place with her finger. She looked troubled. "What do you mean, what about summer?"

"Well," Kate explained, "it's already May. School will be out in about three weeks. Don't teachers have to go to summer school, or something?''

Erika's voice didn't sound right. "I should have told you before," she said. "I kept hoping something was going to happen. A small miracle or something."

"Where will we go?"

"Chicago, I guess. There are some good schools in the Twin Cities, but I didn't try to get the enrollment forms in there. As a matter of fact I've been thinking about trying for a job in a bigger place. It would be easier for us, and we could make some friends."

"But Erik, my job!"

Erika smiled. "There are plenty of jobs, you can get one easily. But we can't go for another year, because I've signed a contract here. And I do have to go to school. And next week I have to go to Chicago for a couple of days and register, and find a place to stay."

Kate said harshly, "Maybe it would be easier for you if you didn't have me to think about, at all."

"Maybe you'd rather not talk foolishness. I have to go alone this time," Erika said patiently, "because I will be staying with a woman I know named Lucy Ann Campbell. Her husband is the cousin of my English Missus Campbell, and they sponsored me to come to this country. She expects me. I have to go."

"Of course you do. What's she like?"

"Straight. Married. Two children."

"Oh." But why did she feel like crying?