Five Fortunes - Softcover

Gutcheon, Beth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060929952 ISBN 13: 9780060929954

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2005

Synopsis

Witty, wise, and hope-filled, Five Fortunes is a large-hearted tale of five vivid and unforgettable women who know where they've been but have no idea where they're going. A lively octogenarian, a private investigator, a mother and daughter with an unresolved past, and a recently widowed politician's wife share little else except a thirst for new dreams, but after a week at the luxurious health spa known as "Fat Chance" their lives will be intertwined in ways they couldn't have imagined. At a place where doctors, lawyers, spoiled housewives, movie stars, and captains of industry are stripped of the social markers that keep them from really seeing one another, unexpected friendships emerge, reminding us of the close links between the rich and the poor, fortune and misfortune, and the magic of chance.

About this title

About the Author:

Beth Gutcheon is the critically acclaimed author of the novels, The New Girls, Still Missing, Domestic Pleasures, Saying Grace, Five Fortunes, More Than You Know, Leeway Cottage, and Good-bye and Amen. She is the writer of several film scripts, including the Academy-Award nominee The Children of Theatre Street. She lives in New York City.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Chapter One

Stepping out to the curb in front of the Phoenix airport that November Sunday, Mrs. Albert Strouse, San Francisco matron of impressive age, was met by a welcome shock of heat. There had been a wintry dankness in the wind at home for weeks, which along with the artificial winter of the airplane cabin had settled into her bones. She adjusted her dashing new mango-colored sunglasses and basked.

A young woman in a jacket of a familiar blue appeared beside her. "Mrs. Strouse!"

"Cassie! How are you, dear?"

"Can't complain." Cassie took Rae's small suitcase and led her to the blue minivan waiting in the No Waiting zone. "You're my last lady. Do you mind riding up front with me?"

"Delighted. I'm good with a shotgun."

Cassie held the door while Rae hoisted herself into the front seat.

There were four other passengers already on board, none known to her. They exchanged nods of greeting with her, except for one fat one who either had jet lag or had enjoyed some cocktails on the plane and was slumped in the back with her eyes shut, looking like a failed popover.

Normally Rae Strouse loved a party. Normally Rae Strouse considered three strangers on a bus a festive gathering, but today as the van left the city behind she was just as glad to contemplate the afternoon light on the desert and let The Young behind her get on with their conversation.

The Young were apparently two childhood friends, now separated by husbands and children and distance, taking a week together. They were clucking over the guest list, looking for useful kernels of information, hoping they weren't going to regret not going to Aruba. New guests were always anxious about how it was going to be.

"Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six. Thirty-six. Well that's a nice size. Group. That's a good group," said the dark one.

"Look, here's that woman Glenna Leisure. She's in W all the time."

"Is she?"

"Yes, you know who she is. She's that one who was a stewardess, she married the leveraged-buyout guy?"

"Is that the one whose co-op got so upset about her Christmas tree?"

"Exactly."

They fell silent as the van sped along toward the violet shadows of the Mazatzal Mountains.

"Is your sister coming with you this time?" Cassie asked Rae.

"No, we're taking a cruise later in the year. Mr. Strouse and I want to show her the Greek Isles."

"That sounds nice," said Cassie.

"We're looking forward to it."

There was another silence.

"A number of your pals from last time are back," said Cassie. Rae nodded. She was such an old hand by now that there were almost always guests she knew from earlier visits. She liked that, but even more she liked meeting new ones. It wasn't so easy at her age to meet new people, and it was important. The old ones kept dying.

The two friends behind her handed the guest list to the third woman, who now remarked, "Mrs. Alan Steadman . . . isn't that Megan Soule?"

Even Rae turned around at that.

"Megan Soule? You're kidding!"

"That's her married name," said the third guest. The two friends looked at her.

"Megan Soule, omigod, I love her! She was so cute in that movie, with Robin Williams . . . "

"I saw her in concert once. She was incredible."

"I've heard she's a really nice person."

"It says she's from Aspen."

"Well she isn't, but they do have a house there."

"But she lives in Malibu."

"Don't those friends of yours live in Malibu?"

"No, they moved."

The little van whizzed along over the desert.

"Well, this should be fun," said the plump blonde, sounding uncertain.

Forty minutes later the little van turned down an unmarked road winding among tall pines. It crossed an arroyo and stopped before a wooden door set in a high stucco wall. The pines cast deep shadows, and the sounds of the highway above and behind them seemed suddenly far away.

The driver rang a heavy brass bell hanging from the doorpost. It had a deep iron peal. Almost at once a young woman appeared through the carved door. Her name tag said jackie.

"Hello, Mrs. Strouse, welcome back," she said as Rae was handed down from the van. Rae passed through into a courtyard inside the walls, the first cloister. When the little door closed behind the group they seemed suddenly wrapped in stunning silence.

"Oh!" said the blonde. "So quiet . . . "

It took a moment to become aware that it was not silent at all, but filled with a subtle singing of crickets, of water playing somewhere nearby, of birds, of moving branches. This courtyard was built around a stone pool whose surface reflected trees towering around it.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060929952
• ISBN 13: 9780060929954
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416