PART 5 — THE TABLE LILY WAS AFRAID TO TOUCH
Two years later, Maple Road Diner reopened after a full renovation.
Frank replaced the entire electrical system.
He made jokes about it constantly.
“If a light flickers, I’m burning the building myself.”
Emma glared.
“Poor choice of words.”
“Right.”
“Very poor.”
The chrome tables were gone.
Not because chrome was dangerous.
Because Lily hated them.
Frank replaced them with heavy wooden tables.
The first time Emma brought the kids back, Lily stopped at the entrance.
She was nine now.
Taller.
Still loved yellow.
Still remembered.
“I don’t want to sit there.”
She pointed toward the corner where Wade had grabbed her.
Emma knelt.
“We don’t have to.”
Noah looked at his sister.
“We could sit by the window.”
Lily nodded.
They did.
Wade Mercer did not attend the reopening.
He was serving a sentence connected to the intimidation work he had admitted.
Reduced because of cooperation.
Not erased.
Emma believed that was right.
Eric visited him.
So did Rachel once.
Emma did not.
For a long time, she did not know whether she ever would.
Then Lily asked:
“Is the biker bad?”
Emma hated questions children make sound simple.
She considered lying.
Instead:
“He did bad things.”
“But he saved me.”
“Yes.”
“So he’s good?”
Emma looked at her daughter.
“People are usually harder than that.”
Lily frowned.
“He was wrong to scare families.”
“He was wrong to help those men.”
“He was wrong not to tell the truth sooner.”
“And he was right to pull you away from that table.”
Lily thought.
“So both?”
“Yes.”
“Can somebody be both?”
Emma smiled sadly.
“Most people are.”
Noah disagreed.
“He’s still a jerk.”
Emma laughed.
“That can also be true.”
Ben rebuilt their house on the three acres they kept.
Smaller than the old one.
Stronger.
