After Annie

by Anna Quindlen

With Annie gone she was somehow able to see her friend more clearly, more as she really was and less how Annemarie wanted or needed her to be. It was probably an oversimplification to put it that way, but their friendship was based on the fact that one wanted to be special and one didn’t really care.

Annemarie had been tormented by the idea of a quiet, uneventful future, and Annie had been contented with the same idea.

“How could anyone expecting a baby not think about the future?” she’d said. “If you do you will miss so much,” Maude said. “I have eight children, and the best times are when I see them as they are now and don’t think about someday.”