While Linda felt she had done well to receive a brand new color television for Christmas, Lauren got a car, an adorable lemon yellow 1973 Ford Mustang convertible with tan plaid seats. "It belonged to one of my dad's friends wives," she said when she showed it off to Linda in the Tuileries parking lot. "I can't wait for it to get warm!"
In March, during a warm, sunny spell, she put down the convertible top for the first time. She, Linda, Naomi, and Marie took a victory ride through campus, waving and honking along, as if they were the grand marshals in a parade of one.
Two months later, Linda stayed at her cottage while practically everyone else she knew headed north for the summer. For the first time she got to see what the campus and the town of Alexandria looked like from mid May to late August. She missed volunteering at the Outpatient Oncology center the most of all, even though the money she would have made at the feed store also would have helped.
She still worked at the Dream Lab, where along with her Tuesday and Thursday oneironaut duties, she also helped organize files and tidy up during the day. For that, the directors increased her weekly pay to one hundred dollars weekly. She still worried about finances. On a phone call home where both her mother and father spoke to her on different extensions inside the house, she told them "I think I need another part time job, like cashiering at a store or something."
Her mother said "What on earth for?"
Her father echoed "How are you going to have time for that, working at that headshrinker place and taking classes?"
"I'll find a way."
Her mother's tone became tinged with concern. "Is there some reason you need the money?"
Linda wondered what her mother was getting at, like whether she had gotten herself knocked up and needed to pay for an abortion. She was still a virgin; it would have been an immaculate conception. "Well, when I used to work at the feed store, that money would go toward tuition. But since I'm not going to be working there and the Dream Lab is only part time, things are going to get really tight."
"No they're not," her father said.
"What do you mean?"
He hummed a triumphant bugle call and his voice took on the booming tone of a ringmaster. "Ladies and gentlemen! Will you please give a warm welcome to this year's winner of the Serafina academic scholarship: Linda Serafina!"