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Chapters (45)
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. Permissions Acknowledgments
  44. Also by Wendy Wasserstein
  45. Copyright Page

“Don’t say anytime, Francesca.” Charlie laughed again. “You have to learn to be a little difficult. Maybe we could teach each other that. I’ll call you, darling. Thanks.”

Charlie put down the phone and asked the bartender for a spare cigarette. He would just get through this. He’d see his friends like Frankie and Jil, the people he knew were still genuine. And once this uncertain period was over maybe he’d change his life completely. Maybe he’d move downtown.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

·CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR·

Frankie

Frankie had begun planning the health initiative at Intermediate School 104 in East Harlem around three years ago. The strategy Frankie developed was twofold: a class taught at the school by community physicians and nurses and a weekly open clinic. In the year that the initiative was up and running, student awareness about nutrition, smoking, asthma, and even flu shots had made a marked difference in the health profile of both the children and the parents at I.S. 104.

When Frankie asked Charlie Acton to meet her at the school she was deeply suspicious of her own motives. A man calls her and says, “You have to learn to be a little more difficult,” and her response is to phone him a week later and invite him to an intermediate school health fair in Harlem. In her mind it was the same kind of twisted thinking that led her to identify with the movie The Nun’s Story when she was nine. In the film, Audrey Hepburn played a Belgian nun who went to a leper colony in the Congo and fell in love with a good-hearted doctor. The only problem with this scenario was Frankie was a Jewish girl from Queens, and she was not Audrey Hepburn. Moreover, she would have been scared to death of a Congo leper colony.

“I’m so glad you called me.” Charlie kissed Frankie hello on the steps of the school. “I’m really excited to see this!”

Charlie took Frankie’s arm as she led him into the building. I.S. 104 was only ten blocks away from many of the first-tier New York City private schools, but as opposed to the first tier, for around ten years the school had been ranked as one of the worst in the city, with one of the highest drug abuse and dropout rates.

“How often do you come here?” Charlie asked as they walked through the halls decorated with paper pumpkins and pilgrims.

“Maybe once a week. And I see patients from here most Thursday mornings.”

“Must be very rewarding.” Charlie watched as one of the students passed by and waved. “Hey, Dr. Weissman.”