Life Is the Dream, Love Is Reality
A friendship between a Brandeis girl and a Harvard guy turns into a tragic love affair.
An excerpt:
He was tired, so he decided to lie down for a while, but he left the door to his room partway open. Just as he was dozing off, he heard the front door open. He slid out of bed and peered into the entryway. But it wasn't Debra; two young women entered, a tall slender blonde and a short pudgy brunette. The brunette spotted him and stopped.
"The new tenant!" she said. "Hi!"
He opened the door all the way and stepped out. "Hi."
"I'm Shirley and this is my roommate Audrey," the brunette said.
"Hi, Shirley and Audrey. I'm Art."
"We live on the third floor," Shirley said.
"In the attic," Audrey added.
"Probably you haven't met anybody else yet."
"Not yet."
"Well, you're Apartment One, of course," Shirley said. "Apartment Two is the lieutenant. That's what we call him because he's in the Air Force. We kind of think his name is Sam. Or maybe it's Stan. We know it starts with 'S' because it's on his mailbox, 'S. Williquette.'"
"He's hardly ever here anyway. He lives mostly on the base. He just comes here to screw his girlfriend."
"Audrey!"
"Well, it's true."
"Yeah, but it's not something you should say." Shirley giggled. "So, anyway, Apartment Three is the ballet dancer. Or maybe she's just a ballet student. Her name is Beverly."
"I think it's Barbara," said Audrey.
"Is it? Maybe. She just has her initial on her mailbox, too, just a 'B.' B. Farrington. And the whole second floor is Debra. Debra Steinberg."
"She's Jewish," Audrey added. "She used to have a roommate named Ruth but Ruth moved away."
"I think I might know Debra," Art said. "What does she look like?"
"Well, she has red hair and kind of blue-green eyes. She's real pretty."
Art nodded. "Yeah, I do know her."
That seemed to excite Shirley. "Oooh, how do you know her?"
"Last summer, three friends and I sublet an apartment from some law school students and she was one of the girls in the apartment next to us."
Shirley clapped her hands. "A summer romance!"
"No, just a friendship. We were both going out with other people so she was a girl friend, not a girlfriend."
"Hmmm.if you say so." Shirley looked at her watch. "Anyway, she'll be here in about a half-hour. About five-thirty, that's when she gets home from work."
"Do you happen to know where she works?"
"Ummm, something with the state, I think."
Art nodded. That fit. The previous summer, Debra had an internship with the state's department of mental health that was to become a part-time job when she went back to school in September. Now that she had graduated from Brandeis, it had probably turned into a full-time job.
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