Chapter 14 - Claire and Margaret Spoke Again Three Years Later
It happened by accident.
A bookstore.
Margaret was eighty.
Claire forty-two.
Claire saw her near the history section.
For a moment both considered walking away.
Margaret spoke first.
“Hello.”
Claire stopped.
“Hi.”
She looked different.
Shorter hair.
Simpler clothes.
Less rigid somehow.
They made awkward conversation.
Then Claire said:
“I’m glad you look well.”
“I am.”
Silence.
Claire asked:
“Do you like where you’re living?”
“Very much.”
Then Margaret saw the question forming before Claire asked.
“Yes, it was my decision.”
Claire’s eyes dropped.
“I wasn’t going to—”
“I know.”
Another silence.
Then Claire said:
“I think about what I did.”
Margaret answered:
“I imagine you do.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
Claire almost smiled.
Fair.
Then:
“I wanted to tell you something about the business.”
Margaret waited.
“I saved it.”
“I heard.”
“But I had to make it smaller.”
Margaret nodded.
Claire looked embarrassed.
“I could have done that from the beginning.”
“Yes.”
“I nearly destroyed my marriage because I couldn’t accept that.”
Margaret corrected:
“You nearly destroyed more than your marriage because you decided your fear mattered more than my safety.”
Claire absorbed it.
“Yes.”
Specific.
No comforting euphemism.
Then Margaret said something Claire did not expect.
“I’m glad your business survived.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
Margaret continued:
“That does not mean I’m glad about how you tried to save it.”
Both truths.
They parted five minutes later.
No hug.
No restored family relationship.
May you like
Enough.
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