It wouldn’t have been Denise if she didn’t change our plans at the last minute, based on the schedules of her new friends. Two days she’d been in a foreign country where she didn’t know a soul and she already made friends, promised to help them set up the stage for their Avant-Garde play and left me flopping in the wind.

Strange how one can still get distressed over being excluded when one left home for a solitary pursuit and went far away from the familiar places and people in order to find oneself.

I put on my best face for Denise’s benefit, and picked a destination to give her, annoyed more by my own reaction than my sister’s predictably harebrained schedule and arbitrary choice of activities.

“Are you sure you’re not mad at me?” She gave me her loveliest smile, attached to a guilty cat's gaze. “Promise me you’re not mad at me, Louise! I hate the thought of leaving you here all by yourself.”

She only called me Louise when she wanted to get on my good side.

“Denise, you weren’t supposed to come here in the first place. I’ve been here alone for months now, remember? I have work. And plans.”

“Ok, if you say so.”

She headed for the door, then changed her mind.

“You know, you could still come with us! I’m sure everyone would love to meet you and they could use another pair of hands.”

“Thanks. Pass.”

“Ok. Just call if you change your mind.”

“Denise! Go!”