Points of Departure by Pat Murphy Read Free Book Online

her past. She was worried about her future.
    Mark still lived in San Francisco, but Liz had moved on.
    For the past year, she had lived in Los Angeles. Now she was taking a job in New York, moving far away and leaving her family and friends behind.
    Bristol bumped his head against Liz’s leg again,and she resumed scratching his ears. “What a pair,” Amanda said as she stepped into the room. The older woman set a teapot and mugs on the coffee table and sat cross-legged on the floor beside the dog. Despite her gray hair, Amanda was as casual in manner as the art students who lived in her house, “You always were that dog’s favorite.”
    Bristol lifted his head. With an apologetic air, he movedaway from Liz, stretched, and paced to the front door. Liz frowned and sat up on the couch. “I wonder what’s up,” she said.
    “That must be Elsa,” Amanda said as she poured the tea. “She lives in your old room now.”
    When Liz opened the door for the dog, he pushed past her. Liz stood in the doorway, watching the golden retriever frolic around and around a girl of about eighteen. The girl was laughingand whirling as if trying to keep her face to the dog. A bright flower was stuck in the braid of her long brown hair. Under her arm, she carried a sketch pad and several slim art books.
    Liz watched, remembering when Bristol had greeted her after a long day, when she had carried a sketch pad under her arm and walked home from the bus stop with a flower in her hair.
    “Elsa painted the watercolorover the fireplace,” Amanda said from behind Liz. “She’s quite good. She’s working under Professor Whittier.”
    “Nothing but the best for him,” Liz said, her eyes still on the girl and the dog. Whittier had been Liz’s professor.
    Liz stepped back from the door when the girl turned toward the house. Footsteps pounded up the wooden stairs and the girl and dog burst into the room. “Hey, Amanda,” Elsabegan. “I won’t be here for dinner.”
    “Slow down, kid.” Amanda smiled at the girl as indulgently as she used to smile at Liz. “Say hello to Liz Berke.”
    “Pleased to meet you,” Elsa’s voice was low, as if she were not quite certain she wanted to be heard. “Professor Whittier has one of your drawings hanging in his office. It’s very good.” When she hesitated, Liz was painfully aware that Elsa didnot know what to say and she remembered how she had felt awkward when she had met Whittier’s old students, people he spoke of with respect and affection. Elsa shifted her sketchbook from one arm to the other and looked at Amanda as if for release. “I’m going out to a lecture with some friends so I won’t be around for dinner, Amanda.”
    As Elsa hurried from the room with Bristol close behind her,Liz felt a twinge of something like regret. “Is this her first year?” she asked.
    Amanda pushed a cup of tea toward Liz and nodded.
    “That’s right. Why?”
    “I don’t know. When I first saw her, she reminded me of someone.” Liz shrugged.
    “Your lost youth, perhaps?” Amanda grinned.
    “I don’t know,” Liz repeated, frowning. “I would have liked to talk to her, though.”
    Amanda laughed. “I think youoverwhelmed her. All of Professor Whittier’s students are dancing in your shadow, you know. You’re a tough act to follow.”
    “Nobody says they have to follow.” Liz’s voice was resentful. She sat back down on the couch and sipped her tea, trying not to wish that the golden retriever’s head still rested in her lap so that she could scratch the dog’s ears.
    Liz spent the evening with Amanda, reminiscingabout the years that she had lived in the house. “It was good that you moved on, you know,” Amanda said. “I remember that you almost came back here a year after you left.”
    “I was going to take a job as Whittier’s assistant,” Liz recalled. “I don’t know why I didn’t. Good pay, interesting work, a chance to come back…”
    Amanda shook her head in quick denial.