Lili shrugged. “They seem to take turns. It’s all about little groups and who’s your friend and who isn’t.” She shuddered. “It’s hideous.” She took a sip of coffee. “But, anyway, tell me about your whatever it is.”
Frances looked around the room. There were at least two familiar faces there, which wasn’t surprising. She came in maybe three times a week, and often saw the same people. They weren’t at the point of knowing each other’s names, but should they be caught in a zombie apocalypse or something they would naturally clump together. They nodded at each other, they would even nod at each other outside of the café context; it was only a matter of time before one of them would step forward, stick out a hand, and introduce themselves. Maybe it would even be Frances.
“Hey, Earth calling.” Lili’s tone was wry. “You’re drifting off. Are you drinking? Is that it? Are you hammered right now?”
Frances laughed. “No, but I have noticed my mind wanders a lot. Does yours?”
Lili nodded. “All the time. The other day it went to the zoo without me.”
Frances made a face at her. “I’m a little worried about Ava. Her grades are dropping and I just found out she quit a load of extracurriculars without telling me.” She shrugged. “I’m used to being consulted, but maybe I’ve been laid off without even realizing it.”
“A kind of ‘once I was the student, now I am the master’ kind of thing?” There was a pause, and Lili grinned. “Sorry, it all goes back to Star Wars for me, you know that.”
“Yeah,” said Frances. “But it is kind of like that. Like when you’re teaching them to ride a bike and you’re running along behind and then suddenly you feel them get it, and they glide away and that’s something you’ll never get to do again.”
Lili gestured to the waitress, who came over. “Can I get another chocolate croissant? And another latte. Thanks.” The waitress looked at Frances, who shook her head. Lili continued, “But you want her to be independent, right? You want her to make decisions for herself.”
“Of course. She’s fourteen, it’s time for her to do it. I just didn’t think she would take over so suddenly and completely. I’m worried that there’s something going on, and now I don’t know how to bring it up.” She told Lili about running into Ava at school. Lili frowned at her.
“Well, it doesn’t sound like you’ll need to bring it up. She’ll give you the third degree the minute she gets out of school.” She smiled at the waitress, and took a bite of her second croissant. “Jesus, why do they make these things so delicious while at the same time offering kale salad and green smoothies? How am I supposed to pick that over this?” She paused and reached across the table, brushing at something on Frances’s arm. “You have a . . . mark . . . on your arm. Doodling on yourself again?”
Frances looked at where she was pointing and smiled. “I never told you that story?” Lili raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “That’s where my brother stabbed me in the arm.”
“Uh, no, I’m pretty sure you never mentioned that. I didn’t even know you had a brother.”
“I don’t really have him anymore. He died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” Frances looked at the tiny blue-gray dot on her inner arm. “He was younger than me and I was supposed to be helping him with his homework. He was being his usual pain-in-the-ass self and procrastinating using every trick in the book, including sharpening his pencil to the point where the lead was longer than the wood, do you know what I mean?”
Lili nodded. “Sure.”
“And I kept bugging him and getting more and more impatient and eventually he stabbed me in the arm with his pencil.”
“Seems a little harsh.”
“Worse still, the lead was so long it just stuck there, standing straight up, as a single drop of blood oozed out and ran down onto the kitchen table. It wasn’t really painful, but it was visually pretty impressive.”
“What did he do?”
“Howled and begged me not to tell Mom.”
“And did you?”
“Of course. And the lead broke off in my arm and left this mark which, now that I look at it closely, is starting to fade.” She touched it with her finger, her skin totally smooth and soft on her inner arm. “He died a few years after that, but I always think of him when I see this.” An image of her brother gazing in horror at the blood jumped into her head and she smiled. She looked up at Lili and wanted to change the subject. “Hey, I heard you’re dating someone, is that true?” Lili had lost her husband in a car crash. Frances knew that, but she didn’t know much more than that. It had happened before they had met, when the kids were very small, she thought. All these losses, all in the past, but still present every day.
Lili made a face. “I guess so. I don’t know. Yes, I am. I think. Not really.”
Frances laughed. “Well, I’m glad we cleared that up.”
“It’s really early, it just started over the summer. I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“What’s his name? Tell me details.”
Lili sighed. “His name is Edward. He’s Dutch.”
“Is he stoned all the time?”
“No. Nor does he wear clogs. He’s a gardening teacher. I find him very, very attractive, but I just don’t know. The kids like him.”
“Well, that’s good.” Clearly Lili didn’t want to talk about this. “What else is new?”
“Lots, for once. I went freelance, I think my sister is going to get married, and the dog has worms.”
“Again?”
• • •
It was eleven when they left the café, and it felt as if they’d solved the world’s problems, if not their own. Frances considered what she could get done in the hour, and eventually went to the grocery store. Default setting: grocery shopping.
Frances
