Atmosphere

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“Happiness is so hard to come by. I don’t understand why anyone would begrudge anyone else for managing to find some of it.”

“I want to live in a little bungalow with you and if the cabinet door started to feel loose, I would tighten it the moment you said something. And I’d make you anything you wanted for breakfast every weekend morning. And I’d take your name, if I could. Or give you mine.”

“I can wake up every single day and choose you, over and over and over again. If you’re in bed next to me, I will take your hand. If you are not, I will go find you. I will spend the rest of my life, if I get that lucky, seeking you out. Not because I promised you or because you’re there. But because I will want to. I will want to be beside you. Every day. Forever.”

“Persistence. Highly underrated in women. Overrated in men, but underrated in women.”

“You’re like Atreyu,” Frances said to Vanessa. “I am?” “Yeah, you’re just like him.” “How is Vanessa like Atreyu?” Joan asked. “Because,” Frances said, looking at Vanessa, “you are the sort of person who would do anything to save the kingdom.” And then: “Don’t you think, Joanie?” Joan looked at Vanessa and smiled.

“Listen to me, kiddo. For some people, childhood is the best part of their lives, and later, all they are trying to do is go back to it. But for people like us, it’s different. The good part hasn’t started yet. But it’s coming. It’s just ahead, when your life is in your own hands and, listen to me, you are going to soar.” Frances leaned forward. “You really think so?” “I know so,” Vanessa said. “I can see it in you.” “Do you think I could be an astronaut?” Frances asked. “If you want, baby girl,” Vanessa said. “You may just land on the moon.”

Joan tried to imagine Frances free and happy and surrounded by friends, that the school was everything Frances had dreamed of. After eight and a half minutes, they were “in orbit” during the simulation. Joan unstrapped herself and began to pretend, as best she could, that she was in microgravity. Pretending to solve problems while floating, even though the gravity of Earth kept them all weighed down. So much pretending.