“I’m curious because she made me curious,” I simply said.
“Aunt Kay, I wish you’d stop being so protective.
Besides, it’s inevitable in light of what you do professionally that you’re going to think the worst about everyone. ”
“I see. I suppose it’s also inevitable, in light of what I do professionally, that I’m going to think everyone is dead,” I said dryly.
“That’s ludicrous,” my niece said.
“I was simply hoping you’d met some nice people here.”
“I would appreciate it if you would also quit worrying about, whether I have friends.”
“Lucy, I’m not trying to interfere with your life. All I ask is that you’re careful.”
“No, that isn’t all you ask. You are interfering.”
“It is not my intention,” I said, and Lucy could make me angrier than anyone I knew.
“Yes, it is. You really don’t want me here.”
I regretted my next words even as I said them.
“Of course I do. I’m the one who got you this damn internship.” She just stared at me.
“Lucy, I’m sorry. Let’s not argue. Please.” I lowered my voice and placed my hand on her arm. She pulled away.
“I’ve got to go check on something.” To my amazement, she abruptly walked off, leaving me alone in a high-security room as arid and chilly as our encounter had become. Colors eddied on video displays, and lights and digital numbers glowed red and green as my thoughts buzzed dully like the pervasive white noise. Lucy was the only child of my irresponsible only sister, Dorothy, and I had no children of my own. But my love for my niece could not be explained by just that.
I understood her secret shame born of abandonment and isolation, and wore her same suit of sorrow beneath my polished armor. When I tended to her wounds, I was tending to my own. This was something I could not tell her. I left, making certain the door was locked behind me, and it did not escape Wesley’s notice when I returned from my tour without my guide. Nor did Lucy reappear in time to say goodbye.
“What happened?” Wesley asked as we walked back to the Academy.
“I’m afraid we got into another one of our disagreements,” I replied.
He glanced over at me.
“Someday get me to tell you about my disagreements with Michele.”
“If there’s a course in being a mother or an aunt, I think I need to enroll. In fact, I wish I had enrolled a long time ago. All I did was ask her if she’d made any friends here and she got angry.”
“What’s your worry?”
“She’s a loner.” He looked puzzled.
“You’ve alluded to this before. But to be honest, she doesn’t impress me as a loner at all.”
“What do you mean?” We stopped to let several cars pass. The sun was low and warm against the back of my neck, and he had taken off his suit jacket and draped it over his arm. He gently touched my elbow when it was safe to cross.
“I was at the Globe and Laurel several nights ago and Lucy was there with a friend. In fact, it may have been Carrie Grethen, but I’m really not sure. But they seemed to be having a pretty good time.” My surprise couldn’t have been much more acute had Wesley just told me Lucy had hijacked a plane.
“And she’s been up in the Boardroom a number of late nights. You see one side of your niece, Kay. What’s always a shock to parents or parental figures is that there’s another side they don’t see.”
“The side you’re talking about is completely foreign to me,” I said, and I did not feel relieved. The idea that there were elements of Lucy I did not know was only more disconcerting. We walked in silence for a moment, and when we reached the lobby I quietly asked, “Benton, is she drinking?”
“She’s old enough.”
“I realize that,” I said.
I was about to ask him more when my heavy preoccupations were aborted by the simple, swift action of his reaching around and snapping his pager off his belt. He held it up and frowned at the number in the display.