“Go?Youmeanwithyou?” he asked.

“Yes, Ted, I'm talkingto you,” I said.

“Why-why, sure. Thanks. I'd like to,” he said.

He looked so pleased I wondered if he had ever taken a girl anywhere in his entire life. Then I began to think I'd made a mistake. Would the Crowd like him? The Crowd were the school leaders, the group I'd known since childhood. And Ted wasn't one of them.

But it was too late then, of course, to back out23, so I let it go, trying not to worry too much as the week ended. On Saturday night eight sharp Ted arrived at my house.

He made a good impression on24 Mother. He was neat and polite, and I knew by the way Mother acted that she liked him.

Ted didn't have a car, so we walked to Nancy's house, and it was nice walk. Everything went very well at the party. Ted really made an effort to fit in. He danced and took part in the games and talked to people.

Even Nancy was surprised.

“Youknow,”shesaid when we were out in the kitchen together getting some Cokes25, “that Ted Bennington—he's really a nice boy. How come we've overlooked him so long?”

I said, “I don't know. I was wondering the same thing myself.”

I wondered even more as we walked home after the party. He asked me what I was going to do after graduation. I told him I was going to secretarial school, and he said he was working for a scholarship26 to Tulane, where he planned to study medicine. I learned that he had three sisters, that his mother was a widow like mine, and that he enjoyed playing the guitar. The moonlight was beautiful, and suddenly I was quite conscious of my hand, small and empty, swinging along beside me. His hand was swinging, too, and after a while they sort of27 bumped into each other. We walked the rest of the way without saying much, just holding hands and walking along in the moonlight.

Ted took me to the Homecoming Dance. It just seemed the natural thing to do. And by this time I knew that Ted was that very Special Person I had dreamed about. It grew out of our walks together, long hikes through the autumn woods with the trees blowing wild and red and gold against the blue sky, and picnics with the Crowd. Sometimes Ted brought his guitar to the picnics, and we all sang.

“Whydidn'tyoutell us you played the guitar?” somebody asked him.

Ted grinned28 and said, “I didn't think anybody would be interested.”

By then we were spending almost all our time together. I had never felt this way about any boy before.

Ted said, “You and I get along together so well. It seems as if it were meant to be that way29.”

“Youmean,”Isaid—andI didn't know how to say it—“you mean it's as though it is written in the stars?”

Ted was silent a moment and then he said, “Yes, that's what I mean.”

It was the night of the Senior Prom30. I wore my new rose evening dress, my rose slippers, and the locket Mother had given me.

Ted noticed it right away. “Nice,” he commented. “Is it a family treasure?”

“More or less,” I said. “Daddy gave it to Mother, and Mother gave it to me.”

“Does it open?” he asked.

“I don't know,” I said.

“Let'ssee.” Hereachedover and took the locket in his hands. In a moment he had pried31 it open. A tiny lock of hair fell out.

“So,”he said, smiling. “I didn't know you* **ther had red hair.”

“Iguesshe musthavewhen he was young. Put it back, Ted. It belongs there.”

He did so, closing the locket gently.

I'd tell you about the summer, but you must know already what it's like to be in love. You get up in the morning and eat breakfast just as you always have done before, but every moment you are thinking, “I am going to see him today—in two hours—in one hour—in ten minutes—and now he is here!” Then one day. Ted had the happy news that he had received a scholarship at Tulane. “How do you like the sound of Doctor Bennington?” he asked me.

“Wonderful!” I said. “But I'll miss you.”

“I'll miss you too,” he said. “I wish you were going to Tulane with me.”

“Don't worry,” I said.“I'll be right here waiting. Maybe I can get a job at the college before you finish.”

“That would be great, but I'm afraid,” he said.

“Afraid of what?” I asked.

“Well,everythingissoperfect, I'm afraid I'll lose you.”

“Youdon'tneed to worry,” I told him. “You don't lose love that is written in the stars.”

But I was wrong.

Ted went away to school, and we wrote letters to each other quite often at first. Then, as the days passed, we wrote less and less. And that was the beginning of the end. He couldn't come home for Thanksgiving; and when he was home for Christmas, I had the measles32.

We did not get to see each other until spring vacation. By then we had been apart so long that we spent the whole week getting to know each other again. Ted was as good and sweet and wonderful as ever, but somehow he seemed different. When he went back to school, he said, “Don't forget me.”

“Ofcoursenot,”Isaid,but this time I was not so sure.

As it worked out33, it was Ted who met somebody else. She was a student at Tulane. Ted wrote me a letter telling about her. He said he was sorry, and he knew I would understand.

It was raining the day the letter came. I read it in the living room and then gave it to Mother to read and went upstairs to my room.

I lay on the bed and listened to the sound of the rain. I didn't hate Ted, but I couldn't believe what had happened. I didn't even hate the girl. I could not believe that he was now gone and he would never come back again. Never!

I was still lying there when Mother came in. Before she spoke, I knew what she was going to say.

“Thereareotherboys,”she said. “You may not believe it now, but there will be.”

“Isupposeso,”Isaid,“but Ted was The One. I can neve* **ll in love again!”

Mother was silent a moment. Then she said, “Do you have the locket I gave you?”

“Thelocket?Yes,ofcourse, it's in the top drawer of the dresser.”

Mother got the locket. “Put it on,” she said.

I sat up and put the locket around my neck.

“Yousee,”shesaid,“the locket was given to me by a Special Person—The One—when we were engaged.”

Then I held the locket lovingly, remembering Daddy. What a happy life he and Mother had had.

“You see,” she said, “he was kind, sweet, and wonderful. I was sure he was written for mein the stars.” Then she added slowly, “He was killed in a train wreck34 three weeks after we became engaged.”

“He what!” I exclaimed. “But I thought—you mean you loved somebody before Daddy—somebody you thought was The Special One?”

“Yes,thatisit. If I'd married him, I'm sure that I would have been very happy. As it worked out, three years later I married you* **ther. We loved each other, and I was happy with him.”

“I don't understand,” I said.

Then Mother replied, “What I'm trying to tell you, honey, is that there is no one special person who alone can make us happy. There are many fine people in the world. Ted is one of them, but he came along too soon.”

I almost cried because I thought I was losing the dream of my childhood.

Then Mother said gently, “One of these days a good man will come along at the right time—he will be the One written for you in the stars.”

She went out and closed the door softly and left me alone, listening to the rain.

I looked at the door Mother had just closed behind her, and I thought about the other door, the door of Hope that she had just opened.