Laura

Laura enters the story as the scientist Hollis meets in Seville and follows home, becoming both the object of his sudden devotion and an unsettling visual echo of Auden’s mother. Her brief appearance connects Hollis’s roaming past to his return to Colby, while her work and striking resemblance shape how Auden and Heidi first see her.

Identity and Background

Laura is a scientist doing graduate work at the U. She met Hollis at a youth hostel in Seville, where she was attending a genetic conference and studying in the library. Hollis, who had been sleeping there, disturbed her research by snoring; she told him to get up and leave. He later described that encounter as the story they would tell their grandchildren, turning their less-than-romantic first exchange into a playful origin story for their relationship.

Arrival in Colby

Hollis says he was so taken with Laura that he cut short a trip that had lasted a couple of years and flew after her back to Colby. When he returns with her after more than two years away, Auden sees him getting out of the car and Laura stepping from the passenger side. Heidi recognizes the resemblance before Auden can place what seems familiar about Laura: she looks remarkably like Auden’s mother.

Appearance and Work

The resemblance rests on specific features: Laura has the same long dark hair, dark clothes, and very pale skin as Auden’s mother. Laura is somewhat shorter and curvier, but the likeness remains striking enough to unsettle Auden as the pair approach the house. The scene introduces Laura through the family resemblance she evokes, before the narrative supplies much independent detail about her.

Laura’s work also distinguishes her from Hollis’s wandering life. When Auden asks why Laura is not with him on the boardwalk, Hollis explains that she loves onion rings but has work to do: she is applying for a spring grant and writing essays. He calls her unstoppable, and Auden recognizes her as the driven one. Her professional ambitions are thus presented through Hollis’s admiration and Auden’s observation, rather than through an extended account from Laura herself.