Mirror, Mirror

My question is this, if your home is your castle and your body is your temple, which gets more maintenance? For me,dietis a dirty word. Not to my roommate Maggie Tamburo, however. She puts notes on our bathroom mirror like the one hanging there today. Someday I'll weigh what my driver's license says I do.I pulled the sticky note off the bathroom mirror, wadded it up and tossed it into the garbage. No time to think of my roommate's hangups now. It could take hours just to run through the highlights, and I have an appointment today that I can't miss. I'm a parttime tutor and I have a little guy named Nathan waiting for me whom I can't stand up.After my session with Nathan Tracy, his mother, Linda, caught me in the hall outside his room. "Do you have time for coffee, Quinn? I'd like to talk to you." She beckoned me to follow her to the kitchen, where streams of sunlight poured over a blueandwhite checked tablecloth on a bright yellow table. She poured coffee, set out a plate of lemonfrosted biscotti and doughnuts covered with chocolate sprinkles in front of me and sat down. "Nathan adores you." "The feeling is mutual. I think he's going to be president of the United States one day." "He'll acknowledge you in his inaugural address, I'm sure." Linda's forehead puckered in thought. "There is a man in our neighborhood who could use someone like you. Jack was widowed two years ago. He has a tenyearold son with juvenile arthritis. He's been trying to be mother, father, breadwinner, cook and housekeeper in addition to homeschooling Ben when he's sick, just like his wife did." Linda sipped her coffee and pushed the doughnuts my way. I took another. Maggie would have a fit, but I don't gain weightshe does. Since I end up on her diet at home, I have to forage sweets for myself when she's not around. "If you want my theory, he keeps busy so he won't have to think about having lost his wife, Emily. They were a 'perfect' couple, so in tune with each other that they could finish each other's sentences. Emily always said that if she thought about ice cream the next thing she knew, Jack was bringing her a bowl from the kitchen." Linda leaned forward and rested on her elbows. "I know you are busy, Quinn, and that you work at two jobs, but I'm wondering if you have time for one more student." Busy is an understatement. I'm a model as well as a tutor. I have the natural Nordic look popular in the upper Midwesttall, blond and leggy. My grandmother describes me as she might a really good dessertpeachesandcream complexion, honeycolored hair and naturally rosy lips the color of fresh strawberries. It's nothing I can take credit for, of course. God and my genetics get that. My roommate Maggie Tamburo is also a model. While I model parttime for the fun of it, she makes her living in the business. Maggie is dramatic looking in a dark, exotic way reminiscent of Sophia Loren. She's voluptuous, sultry and prone to gaining weight easily, a problematic trait for a model who spends a lot of time in front of the camera. She has large brown eyes and pronounced features which are, when arranged as they are on Maggie's face, breathtaking. "Modeling seems like a glamorous profession, yet you prefer to tutor. Why?" "Looks are fleeting, Linda. What I can do for these kids can affect them, their families, maybe even the world. Someday I'd like to earn enough money modeling so that I don't have to charge so much for my tutoring services to families who are already financially strapped." "You'd love Ben Harmon. He is an unbelievable charmer," Linda continued. "His father, Jack, is determined that Ben have the best education he can under the circumstances." I felt a familiar pull toward this child already. "Ben is tBaer, Judy is the author of 'Mirror, Mirror ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373874354 and ISBN 0373874359.