Chapter 24
Mia met Lucinda when she was sixteen.
By then Ethan was twenty-two.
He had known Lucinda again for years.
Limited.
Sometimes close.
Sometimes not.
Mia’s relationship remained mostly letters.
Her choice.
Then she asked:
“Can I meet her?”
Silvio said:
“Yes.”
The answer surprised everyone.
Including Silvio.
Mia frowned.
“That easy?”
“You’re sixteen.”
“Ethan had therapist.”
“You can have one if you want.”
“Do I need?”
“That is not the same question.”
She rolled her eyes.
Good.
They arranged a neutral lunch.
Ethan declined to attend.
Mia looked at him.
“Why?”
“Your meeting.”
Correct.
Lucinda arrived first.
Mia had no memory to compare.
That made everything different.
She saw a woman in her fifties.
Not the aunt through hot glass.
Not the person who told her brother babies cry.
Just a stranger with familiar eyes.
“You look like Dad.”
Lucinda laughed once.
“So do you.”
Mia looked offended.
“I’m prettier.”
Probably.
They sat.
Mia’s first question:
“Did you ever hold me before car?”
Lucinda became quiet.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“When you were born.”
Another pause.
“I fed you bottles sometimes.”
Mia looked toward Silvio across the restaurant, at another table.
“Did Dad let?”
“Yes.”
“So he trusted.”
“Yes.”
“And then you did car.”
“Yes.”
Mia thought.
“That’s worse.”
Lucinda nodded.
“Yes.”
Different from Ethan’s memories.
Mia’s betrayal existed through history.
Not body memory.
Still real.
Then:
“Did you think I could die?”
Lucinda’s face changed.
“No.”
“Why?”
“I believed the plan was controlled.”
“Wasn’t.”
“No.”
“Did you know later?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Lucinda looked down.
“When the delays became longer and the temperature kept rising.”
“And still wait.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
Good.
Mia asked whether Lucinda still believed Silvio’s old environment was unsafe.
Lucinda answered:
“Yes.”
Then immediately:
“And that does not make what I did necessary.”
Mia nodded.
Ethan had apparently trained everyone.
After lunch Mia said:
“I like her.”
Silvio felt something complicated.
Mia saw.
“Problem?”
“No.”
“You look problem.”
“I’m adjusting.”
Good answer.
Mia continued seeing Lucinda occasionally.
More easily than Ethan.
That hurt Ethan once.
He admitted it.
“She doesn’t remember.”
Silvio looked at him.
“That makes her relationship different.”
“I know.”
“Still bothers?”
“Yes.”
Both.
Ethan did not ask Mia to become angrier.
Mia did not ask Ethan to become less.
The same event had happened to both.
May you like
It had not happened inside them the same way.
That mattered.
