She had been riding since the afternoon, circling the tree-lined riding path again and again. Like skiing, riding gave her the fleeting illusion of flight—the brief weightlessness amid the jolting, the cool wind rushing against her face—and every time, it made her laugh with delight.
What a wonderful day it was. From the moment she woke that morning, Chloe had felt an inexplicable joy. The instant she opened her wardrobe, she picked out her favorite clothes. Everything she had casually set down turned out to be right at hand when she looked for it. As she left the house and reached toward the sky, a beautiful leaf happened to drift right into her palm...
Everything was going smoothly. Everything seemed lovely.
All these coincidences gave her a sense of responsibility. On a day that belonged to her, she ought to immediately do whatever made her happy and not waste a single moment.
A car approached from the opposite direction. Though Chloe did not focus her gaze to identify it, she recognized at once that it was Hesta's car. Lately, she had been exceedingly sensitive to anything connected to Hesta, yet for that very reason, she suddenly realized that everyone was talking about this woman.
Her mother and father talked about her at their dining table. Familiar friends and relatives talked about her on the garden swings. Even those elderly people who seemed to keep everyone at arm's length spoke of her in low voices with stern faces...
She was in the newspapers Chloe picked up, in the headlines of magazines she passed on her way out, and when she returned home to check the mail, she even found a large envelope Hesta had sent her mother! How glaring that careless yet graceful "Jane Hesta" was!
Whenever she saw Hesta's face