The Night's Legacy by P.T. Dilloway Page A

yesterday.”
    “Yesterday was pretty hectic.  You probably didn’t notice.”
    “I can tell you’re lying.  I’m not a little kid anymore.”
    Mom Glared at her.  “You shouldn’t talk to your mother like that.”
    “Don’t try to confuse the issue.  I’ve seen the way you shuffle around, how it hurts you getting up and sitting down.  And now that bruise?  I want to know what’s going on.”
    “There’s nothing going on, sweetheart.”  Mom reached across the table to pat Lois’s hand.  “It might be hard for you to accept, but I’m getting older.”
    “You’re only fifty.”
    “I know that, dear.”
    “Well the way you look and the way you walk you seem more like seventy.”
    “It’s just stress.  I have a lot to deal with.”
    “I know.”
    “How could you know that?  You haven’t been around in seven years.”  The way Mom said this was with more scientific curiosity than spite.
    “Dr. Johnson told me.  So did Lorna.  They’re worried about you.  So am I.”
    It would have been easy for Mom to throw Lois’s absence in her face, but she didn’t.  Instead she gave Lois’s hand a squeeze.  “You don’t need to worry about me.  I’m fine.”
    “If that’s true then let’s go to Dr. Pavelski—together.  I want to hear it from her.”
    “Lois, please, there isn’t time for that today.”
    “Then make an appointment.”
    Mom stared at her for a moment and then nodded.  “I’ll have Lorna set something up for next week.  Is that fine?”
    “Yes.  Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome, sweetheart.”  Mom checked her watch.  “We’d best get a move on.”
    * * *
    Tony and Melanie were already upstairs when Lois entered the gift shop.  Her eyes narrowed at Tony.  “Melanie, could you go check on those new magnets?” Tony said.
    “Sure,” she said.  Lois passed the garment bag to her before she could scurry away, sensing that something was wrong.
    “ Lois, I can explain—”
    She stabbed a finger into his chest.  “You’d better.  And it had better be good.”  Looking into his eyes, she could feel the anger draining away.  She latched on to her bad memories from Northwestern like a life preserver to rekindle her rage.  “I thought you were different from the others.  I thought you actually cared.  But you don’t.  You’re a jerk like all the rest.”
    “I deserve that,” he said.  “And a lot more.  I’m so sorry, Lois.  I didn’t mean to leave you there.  I went to the bathroom and there was a guy I know there, an old college friend.  We got talking and by the time I got back to the bar, you’d already gone.”
    “Horseshit.  I looked all over that place for you.”
    “We must have missed each other.”
    “No, I missed you.  You didn’t give a damn about me.”
    “Lois—”
    “I think it’d be better if you work in the back today.  Melanie and I can handle things out here.”
    “Now look, I’m your boss—”
    “If you want to keep being my boss then shut up and go count magnets or whatever.  Otherwise I’m going upstairs and telling my mom what we did in the backseat.”
    “You don’t need to threaten me.”
    “Maybe not, but I want to.  Get lost.”
    Only after he was gone did she sink beneath the counter and cry.  She felt Melanie’s hand on her shoulder.  Melanie was a lot smarter than she sounded sometimes; she had already put two and two together.  “You went out with Tony last night?”  Lois nodded, her throat too choked with sobs to say anything.  “What happened?”
    “He ditched me at this club,” Lois managed to get out.
    “Oh my God, that is so awful.  If I’d known what a creep he was, I never would have salivated over him like I did.  I totally put the thought in your head.  I’m such an idiot!”
    “You didn’t do anything.  We met the night before I started working here.”
    “You did?”  The light bulb went on over Melanie’s head.  “Oh my God, he was the one you were