Eliza Starts a Rumor(84)
“Oh. That is funny,” Eliza said, remembering the last time she had encountered a young mother at the Stop & Shop. “Which group was that? Valley Girls?”
“No,” she said with a hint of disdain. “If you need real answers you have to go to the Hudson Valley Ladies’ Bulletin Board.”
“I’ll be sure to check it out,” Eliza responded with a smile.
Before heading home, Eliza took a moment in the car to text Olivia the directive she had thoroughly thought through while she was away. It was time to pass the torch and move on to the next chapter of her life.
Olivia was thrilled to receive Eliza’s message. She was just up the road at the Café Karma Sutra with Alison when it came through. They were waiting on line to order, each with a receptacle in hand.
“Look!” Olivia held up her phone. “Eliza is back and wants me to officially announce my position as the new moderator of the bulletin board!”
“That’s great, Olivia!”
Eliza’s prior posts, both the original, fictional ones and the heartbreakingly true ones, had changed the tone of the bulletin board and pushed its membership north of ten thousand, spreading to towns on either side. With these growing numbers she would soon need to enlist help. There was an increasingly strong feeling of community and support among the members. Olivia was excited to take it to new heights.
Alison had news as well, hidden in a folder of legal papers regarding Olivia’s divorce. When they sat down, Olivia opened up the folder with dread, but soon her face lit up.
“What do you think?” Alison asked, as Olivia studied the words on the page. It was copy for an ad that Alison wanted to put in the local paper. At the top it read:
Alison Le, Country Lawyer
“Would you design the ad for me? And my letterhead? And a shingle for my front lawn?” Alison asked with unusual exuberance.
“You’re staying? For me and Jackie?” she squealed, semi-seriously. Alison and Jackie had been inseparable since Thanksgiving.
“Ha-ha. You should know me better than that. I’m staying for me and Zachary.”
“Either way, I love it!”
Alison was excited to become a small-town lawyer. She would pay her bills with things like matrimonial and estate law while offering herself pro bono for immigration cases. Olivia promised to promote her new venture on the bulletin board, as she was, after all, a very satisfied client.
That afternoon, while Lily napped, Olivia proudly built her inaugural fire in the living room fireplace. Out the window the first snowfall was gaining momentum. She was looking forward to the panorama of white it would leave in its wake. She sat down and wrote an official introductory post.
Hello, ladies of Hudson Valley. My name is Olivia York, and I am the new moderator of the Hudson Valley Ladies’ Bulletin Board.
I have big plans for us all, including book clubs, charitable drives, and meet-ups. Please feel free to comment with any and all suggestions and ideas. I can’t wait to see what the future of the Hudson Valley Ladies’ Bulletin Board brings!
The fire was slowly dying, and Olivia was out of logs. The rest of the bundle sat outside within sight but would take some wrapping up on her part to get to. She didn’t feel like leaving the warm, cozy house. She looked up above the fireplace, at the painting of her and Spencer—the last remaining remnant of her marriage. She thought back to an art history class at Wellesley, to stories of Impressionists burning the canvases of works they weren’t happy with. She wasn’t happy with this one, that was for sure.
Without much thought, Olivia took the painting down from the wall. She placed it on the floor and pummeled it with both of her feet, ripping right through the canvas itself. It was liberating. She pressed all her weight on one side of the frame while lifting up the other, snapping it in two, then she snapped those pieces in two again. With each snap she felt calmer and more collected. Within a few minutes, the anniversary present was unrecognizable. Though not completely worthless, she thought, as she tossed the pieces into the fire. She felt oddly at peace as she watched the colors dance through the flames. It was beautiful, like some sort of sacrificial celebration.
“The Rebirth of Venus,” she said out loud with a smile, as the fire caught her marital image and slowly curled it to ash.
She looked back at the bulletin board. Comments were pouring in. Her first post was on its way to becoming an epic thread. She heard Lily on the baby monitor and scurried to her room to get her. As she scooped her up in her arms, she told her, “It’s you and me, baby girl. Everything is going to be all right.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my agent, friend, and greatest ally, Eve MacSweeney. Your brilliance, thoughtfulness, and hands-on approach have me counting my blessings daily. Thank you as well to Christy Fletcher for always lending your ear and expertise, and to Anita Zabludowicz for the wonderful introduction.
To my smart, talented, and visionary editor, Amanda Bergeron, thank you for believing in me so wholeheartedly. There are no words to describe what that means to me. And to Claire Zion and the rest of the team at Berkley, Jin Yu, and Diana Franco, for welcoming me aboard so graciously and for all of your hard work on my book.
To my sister-in-law Andrea Levenbaum for never letting my participles dangle and, more importantly, for always having my back.