Funny how things work out, she thought as she stacked the papers. Adam had the big fight with his dad and had run off to the Peace Corps. Vera had planned to join him, but her father had died suddenly, leaving no one to care for the farm. To Vera, the solution was to sell the farm, but Nella had refused to leave the place. In just a few weeks, everything changed. Vera had agreed to stay behind until Kelly finished veterinary school. The new plan was that as soon as Kelly graduated, Vera would join Adam wherever the Peace Corps had sent him.

Now everything was going to change again. Burke Hatten’s horse threw him and he’d died instantly, so Adam had returned. But this time when he left the country to go back to his job in Africa, Vera wouldn’t be kissing him goodbye. They’d leave together. The goodbyes would be to her mother and sister, to the farm, to her job at the travel agency. Goodbye to the town of Mason. The world she’d been reading about was out there and calling to her.

At last, she was going to answer its call.

She heard Kelly before she saw her. But that had always been the case. Schoolkids tended to call her Pig-Pen after the Peanuts character. But while he was surrounded by dust, Kelly was followed by and covered with animals. Today there was a parrot on her shoulder and some kind of lizard had its tail wrapped around her neck. Three dogs, tails down, were following her. In her hand was a fat textbook that had bird droppings on the cover.

Kelly was almost finished with veterinary school and the “almost” was the key to Vera’s life.

When Kelly was out of the school, Vera could go!

“So where is he?” Kelly asked as she sat down. She removed the lizard from her neck and put it on the porch railing. The bird flew to land on the lizard’s tail. One of the dogs looked longingly at the bird, but Kelly gave the dog a stare that made it lie down, head on paws. Kelly didn’t believe in discourteous animals.

“He’ll be here,” Vera said.

“Sure? I saw Miranda Miller at the funeral. She was eyeing him and she looked good in her miniskirt. I bet she was afraid to sit down or she’d show all.”

Vera didn’t take the bait. For one thing, Kelly didn’t like Adam. She thought he was too full of himself, too bossy. Too much like his father. “I didn’t talk to him, and we didn’t reaffirm our love for each other, if that’s what you’re hinting at. And Miranda Miller is an idiot.”

“Men like dumb girls,” Kelly said.

“Until they marry them,” Vera shot back.

“And that’s when she gets to stop pretending to be stupid.”

Vera laughed.