Bette began to cut Alice’ food, noticing her friend’s hands were shaking as she talked, and was probably still too rattled or out of sorts to remember to eat.  She silently inquired whether Alice still liked honey in her pancakes.  With a small smile, Alice nodded.  After pouring some honey on the pancakes, Bette forked a serving of pancakes, and set the fork down next to Alice’s hand.

“Eventually, of course, we all left for college, and Elise went to Pennsylvania, while I stayed in California,” Alice recounted.  She took the forkful of pancakes Bette had prepared, and chewed slowly.  Boy, I am starving, she realized.  Bette must have anticipated that, she thought.  She swallowed her food, and then drank some cappuccino.

“We eventually lost touch.  But from time to time, I’d see one of her brothers or sisters.  She had a bunch of them … three sisters, three brothers,” Alice recalled.  “All of them moved to the metro LA area, except for a couple, I think who settled in the San Diego area.  Anyway, big family.  Oh … and I’d see her parents, also, on the rare occasion that I’d gone home to visit with my parents.”

Alice swallowed another forkful of pancakes as Bette and Tina began to eat theirs.

“Umm… this is good, Bette, by the way.  And thanks for making breakfast.  Just what I needed, it turns out.  I didn’t realize I would be starving,” Alice said quickly, as she drank more of the cappuccino, going off on a tangent again, as was her wont.

After a few minutes, she continued, “Anyway, I saw a couple of her sisters during one of the charity tournaments Dana had agreed to play in over the holidays.  I heard from one of them that Elise had made her way here to New York, was nearly done with her PhD, and married a college sweetheart who became a stockbroker.  They’d had a couple of boys, in the meantime, and Elise was pregnant again, and about to give birth, actually.”

She shook her head, and tears began to fall.  “So I was really, really happy to hear that.  In fact her sisters and I we were all just shaking our heads and saying that, “Wow, Elise is really on her way.  Everything she always wanted was happening for her … loving husband, kids, PhD, interviewing for jobs that she really likes.  Just everything, you know?”  Alice looked at Bette and Tina, turning her head from one to the other.  They smiled back at her sympathetically.  Tina stroked her arm again, as Bette stood to get them water.