“You didn’t spook me,” said Sherri untruthfully.

“There’s no shame in wanting to improve yourself,” Jan said firmly. “That’s the most important thing you need to understand if you are going to work at Derma-You.”

“No! No, of course not,” said Sherri. “Of course there isn’t any shame in wanting to improve yourself.” If anybody in the place understood that, it was Sherri. If only there was a laser for the heart, thought Sherri. A filler for the soul.

They went over some specifics. Jan preferred to train new hires in the evening, when it was a bit quieter in the office. “Not that it’s ever really quiet,” she said, both proudly and ruefully. The office was open until nine three nights a week. Could Sherri come at six p.m. on the sixth of July, which was next Monday?

Yes, Sherri could come at six p.m. “How long will I stay that night?” she asked.

“A couple of hours,” said Jan. “Maybe longer.”

Sherri thought of Katie in the corner of the bedroom. Her heart started to beat faster. But she couldn’t not take the job. They had to eat; they had to pay the rent. “I’ll see you on the sixth,” she told Jan.

She made her way through the thrum of women seeking self-improvement: the women who felt no shame about their bodies and the women who obviously felt lots of shame. Once she was in her car she allowed herself a little whoop of joy. She had a job! She would get a paycheck and discounts on the lasering of sunspots! She, Sherri Griffin, would be a contributor to the economic wheels that powered the great state of Massachusetts.

Sherri decided she’d bring some sort of treat home for Katie to celebrate. Maybe some of those Angry Donuts from the shop on Winter Street. She hadn’t tried Angry Donuts yet—she didn’t know what the doughnuts were quite so angry about—but one of the moms had told her they were very good.

She found a parking spot near the shop, and when she got out of the car such a funny, unexpected thing happened. She wasn’t far from the river, and some of the scent had wafted her way. A pair of seagulls circled, letting out a mournful, delirious cry. From where she stood she could see the foot traffic and the bike traffic on the rail trail. It was all still so foreign to Sherri, the smells and the sounds and the very particular air of a New England summer. And at the same time, in some inexplicable way, she was starting to feel like she was home.

As it turned out, Angry Donuts sold out early most days and nothing was left for Sherri to buy. So after she picked Katie up at the knitting camp she took her to Mad Martha’s. They would celebrate Sherri’s new job!