Excerpt from Letters in the Attic

"A snippet of jealousy pinches my heart when I think how Eva has fallen in love with her psychiatrist. "His name is Steve," she tells me after her first visit. "It's really Dr. Hudson, but he wants me to call him Steve, can you believe it?" I make my face look as if I'm thrilled for her. "Lizzy, he's major handsome, fall over on the floor good looking and not old either, right out of college, I think."

"Wow!" I say, wondering what his wife looks like and where his kids go to school.

"I think he has a crush on me," she gushes.

I send my real thoughts to bed without any supper and say, "Wow" again.

"He even keeps me longer than my hour...well, really fifty minutes because they have to have time to rest between patients. When the timer rings, he doesn't pay any attention. He just lets me go on talking until I'm finished what I have to say."

I think how she's like a newborn puppy -- all blind and needy.

"He told me I'm one of the most interesting girls he's ever met, maybe he said the most interesting, I can't remember."

"That's great," I say. And here is what I say to her in my head. He gets paid to say things like that. Twenty-five dollars a pop!

"And look," she says, holding out a piece of paper. "He even gave me his own personal answering service number in case I need him after office hours. All I have to do is call, and he'll call me right back."

I feel like grabbing that paper out of her hand and smacking her over the head with it for being so naive. "That's really nice of him," I say. "He sounds terrific."

"He's dreamy, that's what he is. I can't wait for a week to go by so I can see him again. I just have to think up some really sick-sounding stuff to say so he'll keep making me come back."

My brain is tapping its foot. "That's good," I say. "I'm glad you like him."

"Like him! He's absolutely..."

Also by Bonnie Shimko:

Kat’s Promise