Strawberries for Salad

Naomi lives alone in an apartment in an old Victorian near the local university. She is preparing a salad in which strawberries are an important ingredient. To prepare the salad, they must be cut into thin slices of about equal size before being tossed with the rest of the salad. There’s an art to this: her babysitter taught her, when she was a kid. That’s why preparing this salad is special — a yearly ritual for when strawberries are back in season. Naomi did not always live in an old Victorian near the local university. She’s lived in many different houses and apartments since she came to town. She hadn’t even really wanted to move here, as best as she remembers. It’s just that things had been so difficult with her ex-girlfriend Faith, by the end, and before that… Well, maybe it would just be better to start from the beginning, to really get everything straight.