“You are unbelievable,” Lorna says, and she goes to her room and slams the door. And then she does something she has never done in her whole life: She puts her fist through the Sheetrock and breaks her little finger in the process.
Chapter 26Lorna Now
One late afternoon when seth returned from work, he found Lorna in the backyard with Bean and Aggie. She was sewing Bean’s accomplishment badges crookedly onto the blue vest she’d ordered. Bean and Aggie were working on the hole, making it bigger for a reason that Bean had explained in detail, but Lorna had lost the thread of his logic. Remarkably, she didn’t care. She cared only that Seth had come out to join her, putting his hand on her shoulder as he moved past her to take a seat.
They sat on the steps outside the main back door, the length of their legs touching. “Those look familiar,” he said, nodding at the vest. “Unless you’ve been earning badges, those must be Bean’s.”
“I hope you don’t mind,” Lorna said. “It just seemed like a real need. The only problem is that I’m not very good at sewing.” She held it up and showed him. Some of the badges were crooked. Some were not.
Seth studied it a moment. “I think you’re amazing at sewing, Lorna, and far better than me. Thank you.”
“No need,” she said crisply. “It’s my pleasure.” Surprisingly, it did give her pleasure. She could think of nothing more worthwhile to do with her time.
Bean had been arranging her Precious Moments figurines into different villages. Each village had its own rules for entrance. If a figurine couldn’t meet the requirements, it was put in a box until Bean could decide what to do with it. His method had the surprising effect of clearing out her apartment. Which was a good thing, as her apartment had looked more like a museum of broken dreams than a home. She at least owed him the vest.
“I have a question for you,” she said to Seth.
“Shoot.”
“I’d like to take Bean to visit Cho’s Drugstore. I worked there as a teen.”
“Mm,” Seth said. “Apology tour?”
“Yep.”
“What did you do there?”
“I mostly stocked and swept. But sometimes I was lucky enough to get to make ice cream cones when it was busy. The ice cream there is amazing. So are the baked goods. I thought I might treat Bean to homemade pecan pie, if that’s okay with you. You know, for his fieldwork. I’m not sure I’m the person to help him bake a whole pie if he chooses that, but he should at least know about the option, right?”
Seth frowned. “I don’t know... sounds like a lot of sugar. Tell you what—I’ll allow it if you will allow me to treat you and Bean to pizza. Strictly to counterbalance the sugar with cheese, you understand.”
Lorna grinned. “A proven scientific fact. But, as you know, I’m not very social.”
“Not at all,” he agreed.
“So, it would be kind of hard for me to just, like, take a slice of pizza.”
“Sorry, that’s the deal. You want Bean as a ride along, you need to commit to pizza.”
Lorna’s smile widened a little. Was this flirting? It felt a little like flirting. “Wow. Well, the pecan pie at Cho’s is amazing, so... I guess I will make the sacrifice.”
Seth grinned. “Thank you for your service.” He nudged her shoulder with his, and when she glanced up, he was smiling at her. Their gazes held for a long moment, until Lorna could feel her blush turning hot.
She was the first to look away, of course, because she was a pansy. But she was feeling less cowardly every day. They sat companionably for another hour or so, watching Bean and Aggie play and talking about little things. This and that. Nothing important, just... talk. Lorna knew this sort of activity existed, the sharing of one’s daily thoughts with a friend. She couldn’t say she’d ever actually experienced it. But that early fall evening, she did. She felt relaxed. She felt social and, dare she think it, likable.
She felt like a person, a woman, capable of having friends, of being less awkward. She didn’t think once about her hair or what she was wearing, or fret about every word that came out of her mouth.
That’s what she told Micah the next day.
“Wow,” Micah said, nodding solemnly. “This is amazing, Lorna. I hope you appreciate how much you are opening yourself up and how far you’ve come. Everything starts with a little introspection, and then a release of negativity, and then, before you know it, you are living in the moment and not in the past.”
“I don’t actually live in the past; I live in a bomb shelter,” Lorna corrected him.
“Ta-may-toe, ta-mah-toe, the past,” Micah said breezily. “Now the trick is to keep opening yourself up. You’ve got more work to do on your vision board,” he said, consulting his notes. “And we’d like to get you started on body meridian work this week.”
“Body what?”
Micah sighed. “Do you ever read the materials I send home with you?”
