Last Night at the Telegraph Club

your dream?” Shirley asked.

“Well, step one is to go to college, maybe major in aeronautics or engineering. Step two—”

“I didn’t think you were college material,” Shirley said.

Lily stared at her friend in shock. She had no idea what had gotten into her, but Kathleen didn’t seem entirely surprised. She merely smiled slightly before she responded.

“Cal takes anyone in the top fifteen percent of their graduating class,” Kathleen said. “I’m not going to have a problem. Neither will Lily. But I don’t think we’ll see you there.”

Are you like the girls in the book too? Because I think I am.

She touched her for only a second, but Lily felt Kath’s hand through the fabric of her skirt like a spark on her skin.

black rayon skirt with a short-sleeved pink cotton sweater.

Jean’s queerness was contagious, like a cold, and it could be transmitted through Kath to Lily by nothing more than rumor.

Now they seemed somewhat pathetic; they were middle-aged and balding, dressed in ugly plaid shirts.

And yet she couldn’t say the word the book had used to describe those kinds of girls: lesbian. The word felt dangerous, and also powerful

And yet she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

and there was such an unexpected feeling of openness between them—a flying kind of feeling, as if they had lifted off from the ground right then and there.

“There’s an ice cream shop in Chinatown, Fong Fong’s. They have ginger ice cream. That’s my favorite.”
“Ginger! How does that taste?”
“It’s delicious. Little bits of candied ginger are mixed into the ice cream.