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Helen pauses in front of a painting prominently displayed in the museum gallery. In the picture, a woman with her back to the viewer sits alone in a wooden chair staring out a window. Her high-rise vantage point looks down at the tops of other buildings. The sky is blue and a bouquet of flowers sits on a small table.
“Jackie,” Helen says when she catches up to her friend in another gallery, “You must come see a lovely painting of contentment in that other room.”
Minutes later Jackie rejoins her friend. “All I see is a painting of loneliness.”