SOUTH CAPE MAY
store. As Lara progressed to wage earner, her younger sister, Jo, took over the runny nose and spilled glue patrol. Sometimes Lara missed those days of late adolescent freedom. After high school, all her freedom seemed conditioned upon a myriad of responsibilities.
Lara was temporarily rooming with Emily, her college roommate, in a converted but not modernized, former livery stable on the western edge of West Chester. It had been in Emily’s family forever. They had big plans to make it a great small home. Lara liked the name, Oakshaw Cottage, on Old Street. It was so Dickensian. Emily said, “It was haunted by the consequences of bad decisions not yet made.” Lara preferred less complicated ghosts.
The well-articulated platonic tryst Lara planned was only possible because Lara’s Aunt, Nancy Braneen, would be away at a nurses’ convention in New York City. Lara and Nan had joked that they would be passing each other somewhere in central New Jersey, with Nan headed north and Lara headed south. Lara did have a bona fide reason for her trip to South Cape May which predated the addition of Wyn and his car. Because of the war in Korea, several of the young doctors in York had been called for military service and her father was helping to cover their patients’ needs. Normally, Lara and her father went to South Cape May in October to close up their cottage, The Birdhouse, for the winter. It was always a nice trip for Lara. She felt it gave her special relationship with her father. She also learned the mundane skills important to protecting the cottage and grounds. When it became clear that her father would not be able to Cape May, Lara volunteered to go and close up the cottage without him. Because the Van Duara family only had one car, Lara knew she would have to take the train. That was fine with Lara. It would be a nice brake from her job at the bank. Thanksgiving was on the 23rd and her office would be closed until Monday the 27th.
Lara had graduated from Fredericksburg College in June with a degree in History. She was working in the legal department of the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Bank getting acquainted with the fundamentals of corporate banking. Lara liked working at the bank. Its location at 123 South Broad Street gave her ready access to most of downtown. The building itself was very imposing, like something out of a movie. Her department was on the thirtieth floor. From one window or another she could see both rivers, the Billy Penn statue, and the long strip of South Broad Street all the way to the Navy Yard.
Lara had considered going to law school but three years would be a big bite out of her life. When the topic of careers came up at the dinner table on Thanksgiving, Lara was surprised to hear her younger siblings so sure as to what they were going to be. Jo and Bill wanted to be doctors like Dad and Jim wanted to be a lawyer like her, even though she was not all that sure herself. Mom and Dad had withheld comment, perhaps adding up tuition bills soberly.
Lara had worked out an arrangement with her boss to take thirty minute lunches four days a week so she could take a ninety minute lunch once a week. This allowed her to wander further afield in center city Philadelphia, to have a sit down lunch ...
Lara was temporarily rooming with Emily, her college roommate, in a converted but not modernized, former livery stable on the western edge of West Chester. It had been in Emily’s family forever. They had big plans to make it a great small home. Lara liked the name, Oakshaw Cottage, on Old Street. It was so Dickensian. Emily said, “It was haunted by the consequences of bad decisions not yet made.” Lara preferred less complicated ghosts.
The well-articulated platonic tryst Lara planned was only possible because Lara’s Aunt, Nancy Braneen, would be away at a nurses’ convention in New York City. Lara and Nan had joked that they would be passing each other somewhere in central New Jersey, with Nan headed north and Lara headed south. Lara did have a bona fide reason for her trip to South Cape May which predated the addition of Wyn and his car. Because of the war in Korea, several of the young doctors in York had been called for military service and her father was helping to cover their patients’ needs. Normally, Lara and her father went to South Cape May in October to close up their cottage, The Birdhouse, for the winter. It was always a nice trip for Lara. She felt it gave her special relationship with her father. She also learned the mundane skills important to protecting the cottage and grounds. When it became clear that her father would not be able to Cape May, Lara volunteered to go and close up the cottage without him. Because the Van Duara family only had one car, Lara knew she would have to take the train. That was fine with Lara. It would be a nice brake from her job at the bank. Thanksgiving was on the 23rd and her office would be closed until Monday the 27th.
Lara had graduated from Fredericksburg College in June with a degree in History. She was working in the legal department of the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Bank getting acquainted with the fundamentals of corporate banking. Lara liked working at the bank. Its location at 123 South Broad Street gave her ready access to most of downtown. The building itself was very imposing, like something out of a movie. Her department was on the thirtieth floor. From one window or another she could see both rivers, the Billy Penn statue, and the long strip of South Broad Street all the way to the Navy Yard.
Lara had considered going to law school but three years would be a big bite out of her life. When the topic of careers came up at the dinner table on Thanksgiving, Lara was surprised to hear her younger siblings so sure as to what they were going to be. Jo and Bill wanted to be doctors like Dad and Jim wanted to be a lawyer like her, even though she was not all that sure herself. Mom and Dad had withheld comment, perhaps adding up tuition bills soberly.
Lara had worked out an arrangement with her boss to take thirty minute lunches four days a week so she could take a ninety minute lunch once a week. This allowed her to wander further afield in center city Philadelphia, to have a sit down lunch ...