Free Message from Nam by Danielle Steel

Gabby both did exactly what they’d set out to do when they’d come to Berkeley. Gabby signed up for the easiest classes she could, and managed to go out almost every night. She was having the time of her life, although she had not yet found a husband. And Paxton, on the other hand, had signed up for the toughest classes open to her, particularly those involved with journalism or writing. She was also taking a political economics class that was so hard it terrified her, physics, math, and Spanish. Her adviser had fought her on everything except Spanish and math, but she seemed to be doing well in every class except physics, and that was a required class anyway, and she was taking it on a pass/fail basis. But she was exhilarated by everything she learned and did, and still managed to go out with Gabby and her friends sometimes, and she almost always enjoyed them. They were a fun-loving crowd, and they seemed to be involved in everything. Two of them were involved in CORE, several were trying to raise money for SNCC, which were causes that appealed to Paxxie, too, as they benefited southern blacks, and one evening she met Mario Savio, the leader of the Free Speech Movement. Gabby seemed to know everyone, and although she knew the cause people, she also knew the more social ones, too, and most of her friends were pretty tame, which was comfortable for Paxton.
    By the second month of school, Paxton had had several run-ins with Yvonne Gilbert. The black girl seemed determined not to give Paxton a chance about anything, and she constantly assumed that if something was wrong, it was Paxton’s fault, and it was beginning to seriously annoy Paxxie. It was prejudice in reverse, and it was getting to be a challenge to hold her temper.
    Not surprisingly, given her extraordinary looks, Yvonne had found a boyfriend by the second week of school. He was the star running back on the football team, a huge, handsome black boy from Texas, and by association and because of her own personality, she was becoming quite a star on campus. All the boys were running after her, but she seemed to be serious about Deke, and she’d already made it clear to several of her admirers that she had no interest in white boys.
    She was in Paxton’s physics class, but she never talked to her, and they hardly ever spoke except when they ran into each other in their living room and really had to. But the exchanges were never really friendly.
    And Dawn seemed to live her own life too. She still slept most of the time, and more than once Paxton had wondered if she ever even went to classes. “She’s never going to make it, if she keeps it up like this,” she’d said to Gabby several times, who seemed to feel it was not her problem. She had her own life to lead. And she was having a good time going out with two of her brother’s friends from the law school. And her own prediction had proven true. She was seeing more of her brother than she had in years, and although she complained about it constantly, she really enjoyed it. He had started turning up every few days just to make sure she was “alright,” or to bring her things, like a six-pack or a pizza or some pastry he’d just happened to pick up, or a bottle of cheap wine, but Gabby knew he wasn’t worried about her, he was interested in Paxton. The two would sit for hours sometimes, on the battered couch, or on the floor, talking long into the night, drinking coffee or beer, or just Coke, and talking about the things they believed in. They seemed to share the same opinions about everything, and it was rare that they disagreed, and it almost frightened Paxton sometimes to realize how much alike they were and how compatible on a broad range of subjects. It was as though they had been destined to meet and become friends. But it worried Paxton at first, because unlike Gabby, the one thing she didn’t want was to find a husband. She had come to Berkeley to learn and to make something of herself, and one day