She stood with her bag hanging off her shoulder, unsure what to do. She took off her coat and folded it over her arm, and yanked off her ugly winter boots and hid them in a corner. After a few minutes the door opened, and Roberta walked out wearing her bikini, a frightened expression on her face. Sherri had never seen Roberta look so small or so vulnerable with her pale skin and rib bones. She was followed by a woman who must have been the Bunny Mother, based on the silence that fell over the room when she entered it. She was older than the other women by a decade or so but still beautiful. Her cinnamon-colored hair was styled in a fashionable bob, with her bangs cut bluntly across her forehead, and her lipstick was bright red. She wore a loose, ivory silk kimono with orchids embroidered on the neck, and her eyeglasses were propped at the bottom of her thin nose. “What’s your name?”

“Sherri,” she said. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her. “Sherri Taylor. I’m Roberta’s friend.”

“Well, Sherri Taylor, which part of nine o’clock did you not understand? I usually have the interview before I see you in your suit, but I don’t have time for that today. Get changed, pronto. I’ve been waiting. Come to my office when you’re ready.”

Sherri remembered what Bunny Tina told her: smile, be wholesome and sweet. So Sherri forced herself to smile even though she felt like dying. “Absolutely!” She was so rattled she didn’t know what to say. Was she really supposed to change in front of all these women? Then she saw a topless Bunny standing with her breasts hanging out for all the world to see, Sherri stripped, fumbling with her snaps, zippers, and ties because her hands were shaking and cold. Finally, she was in the borrowed bathing suit, which seemed grubby and worn. There was still sand in the crotch from last summer at the lake.

She stuffed her feet into her narrow organ shoes with modest heels and Mary Jane straps and tapped the door to Gloria’s office. “Stand there, against that wall, so your knees and ankles touch,” Gloria said without looking up. Gloria got up and shut the door so that it was just the two of them in the room. She bent down and inspected Sherri’s legs; Sherri realized that she was counting to see if she could see three triangles of light shining through between her feet and ankles, between her ankles and knees, and between her thighs. Fortunately, Sherri had lost her appetite with her grief, and she was skinnier than she’d ever been. When Gloria saw her shoes, shaped more like dress shoes for men, she frowned with displeasure. “What are these?”

Sherri didn’t want to tell Gloria that she played the organ. “It’s my only pair.”