Chapter 24 - I take Lily back to the ballroom
The Whitmore Hotel offered to host the foundation gala again the next year.
The board refused.
Not because the hotel had done anything wrong.
Too soon.
Two years later, we returned for a smaller conference.
I asked Lily whether she wanted to come.
She was six.
She signed:
“Curtain?”
She remembered.
“Yes.”
She thought.
Then:
“Rabbit comes.”
Mr. Buttons came.
We entered in daylight.
No gala.
No guests.
Staff setting up conference chairs.
Lily walked to the velvet curtain.
Touched it.
Then looked toward the table where my glass had been.
Nothing there.
She signed:
“Vanessa put bad there.”
“Yes.”
“She gone.”
“Yes.”
“Drink water?”
I knew what she was asking.
I took a sealed bottle from the conference table.
Opened it.
Drank.
No performance beyond normal.
Lily watched.
Then stole the bottle from me and drank too.
I nearly stopped her because children touching other people’s bottles is exactly how germs travel.
May you like
Instead I laughed.
We were not going to turn recovery into another emergency.
