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spring semester, Kim drove from Galesburg to Chicago to visit her old friend Rita. She normally stayed a week, but after three days in the suburbs it began to feel like she’d been there long enough. Rita’s neighborhood friends were always dropping by—Tuesday for health shakes, Wednesday for scrapbooking. This morning, roused by their noise, Kim had made her way down to the kitchen to find a group of them trying to convince Rita to go to the outlets. These women had plenty of money but nonetheless got a thrill out of finding a bargain. Rita was hesitant about the plan. She knew that Kim wasn’t a shopper.
    â€œMaybe it’s time I learned,” Kim said. “Maybe it’s time I broadened my horizons. This is stuff other people didn’t want, right—at the outlets? That might suit me. I usually like stuff other people don’t want.” She got a bottle of diet soda from the fridge and sat down at the table with it. She felt bad for Rita, having to juggle Kim and her other friends all at once. Kim so plainly didn’t fit in that she’d begun to feel emboldened.
    â€œIt’ll be all day,” Rita said. “We grab lunch up there and everything.”
    â€œI have two hundred and twenty dollars and some change. Is that good enough for all day?”
    Rita’s friends had grown used to Kim and didn’t often respond to her. They were regarding one another with tight faces and blowing into their coffee cups.
    â€œI just don’t want you to be bored,” said Rita. “You have to promise you won’t be bored.”
    â€œYou don’t need to worry about me being entertained,” Kim said. “How long have we known each other?” She was smiling—a little crazily, it felt like.
    It was very bright outside, but Kim could see a lot of clouds through the window too. The leaves on the trees were tender-looking and motionless. The kitchen smelled of whole things, grains and healthy shampoo.
    One of the women, the youngest of them, wasn’t drinking coffee. She made this conspicuous by fondling her cup, turning it upside-down. When the others finally questioned her, she played coy for a moment before announcing she was pregnant. Might be pregnant. She was almost sure. Squealing and flouncing ensued, the women all hugging each other and even deigning to hug Kim, though she remained seated. The other women jokily consoled the pregnant one about not being able to drink wine. Apparently she really liked wine. They all hoped she’d have a girl this time. Preliminary plans for a shower were put in place, duties assigned. Rita didn’t want catering again. She wanted anything but catering.
    â€œThe Carter’s outlet,” one woman said. “I saw the sweetest animal blankets in there. Neutral colors too. They have a pale green and a mustard. And some adorable bibs. You can’t have enough of those.”
    â€œI have a stack of ten-percent coupons,” Rita put in. “They work anywhere in the whole mall.”
    â€œI have some for the kitchen place,” said someone else. “Not Williams-Sonoma but the other one.”
    Now Kim stood with her soda. She didn’t really want it anymore, but she opened it and took it over near the sink. There were more clouds in the sky than a minute ago but also more sunlight. Going to the outlets, she knew, was not a good idea. These women didn’t want Kim around. Things would not turn out well. There was a time when Kim could go with the flow, couldsee the good in people, but that time had passed. She was grumpy now; she worried all the time, and about the wrong things. She worried that she was tired of all the music she owned, instead of that her bathroom was filthy. Her car’s engine was about to give out, but she complained that the windows stuck. She had some money in the bank but no confidence she knew how to spend it. Right now she should’ve been worrying about the