Free Cupid's Christmas by Bette Lee Crosby Page A

understood the feeling.
    Turning his body, John said, “And this is—”
    “Shawnee High Cheerleading,” Lindsay said pointing a finger, “Traci Vogel, right?”
    Traci’s face brightened. “Yes,” she answered, “but it’s not Vogel anymore, it’s Barrow.”
    “You’re Eleanor’s daughter-in-law?”
    Traci nodded.
    Other than a few moments of polite conversation with Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Frank, Lindsay spend the remainder of the afternoon talking with Traci. Although they’d been two grades apart and never so much as passed each other in the hallway, Lindsay seemed to remember that Traci was the best of all the cheerleaders and certainly the most agile. Traci in turn recalled how Lindsay had been one of the most popular girls in school. Reminiscing about things that never were as they remembered, the two girls came to like one another.

     
    C lever, right? A bit of memory adjustment, but it worked out quite well this time. I seldom use this tactic because the placement can be rather tricky. In nineteen thirty-nine there was a situation in Philadelphia where I was replacing three months of leading-up-to-divorce memories with some considerably better ones, but instead of going back in time, I jumped forward. As soon as that woman realized she knew the outcome of events before they happened she convinced herself she was a psychic. She bought a deck of tarot cards and started a fortune-telling business in the living room of her new apartment. Of course a few weeks down the road she ran out of memories and that was the end of her predicting things to come. Not only did the business fail, but she was evicted from the apartment for operating a non-authorized business on the premises.
    Individual thoughts are no problem, they’re much more specific and easier to handle. But don’t expect to see another memory replacement anytime soon. Once a decade is more than enough for me.   
     

Eleanor
     
    I was pretty apprehensive about the Labor Day cookout, but things went better than I’d expected. I heard Lindsay laughing out loud several times, which really surprised me. Up until then I hadn’t seen her so much as crack a smile.
    John said the day they went to the baseball game he and Lindsay had a long talk and now she’s okay with us getting married. As much as I’d like to believe that’s true, I have a sneaky suspicion he simply heard what he wanted to hear. Men are like that. I know, because Raymond was like that and Ray Junior is just like his daddy.
    When Ray was not much more than a teenager, he had a friend at the house and when it got close to suppertime he came into the kitchen and asked if he could invite his friend to dinner. I’d only defrosted three pork chops that evening so I told Ray I’d prefer he didn’t. I didn’t feel guilty about saying no because his friend lived three doors down and I knew the boy wasn’t going hungry. Anyway, I finished up cooking and when I carried the food to the table, big as life there sits Ray’s friend. I handed the boy my plate and said I wasn’t in the mood for pork.
    Later that evening I asked Ray why he’d deliberately gone against my wishes. He looked at me wide-eyed and said I didn’t. You most certainly did, I told him. I reminded him how I’d said not to ask his friend to stay and right in the middle of my talking he pipes up and says, You never told me he couldn’t stay, you just said you’d prefer he didn’t.
    That, in a nutshell, sums up the difference in male hearing and female saying.
    There are times when I almost get the feeling Lindsay will come around, but as far as Ray goes, I’m beginning to have doubts. I don’t think he said ten words the whole time he was at the party. He didn’t eat either. I made the potato salad with lots of mayonnaise just the way he likes it, but he wouldn’t even give it a taste.
    When they first got here Ray said hello to a few people then plopped down in that lawn chair and sat there like an ice