"The Arbus Factor"

Winter Fiction Issue
"The Arbus Factor"
(not available online)
by Lore Segal

Rating: 7.4


Short story about Jack and Hope, advanced in age, meeting for lunch at the Café Provence, just after New Year's. Jack has an agenda.

Gathering her coat and bag, Hope opened the door to the ladies' room and saw, in the mirror above the basins, that her hair was coming out of its pins. She removed all the pins and stood gazing at the crone with the gray, shoulder-length hair girlishly loosened. Hope saw what Diane Arbus might have seen and was appalled, and being appalled pricked her interest right up. "I've got an agenda: the Arbus factor of old age," Hope looked forward to saying to Jack the next time it would be convenient for Jeremy and Nora to arrange lunch for them at the Café Provence. ♦