“Your partners, they’re happier than I’ve seen them since this whole business started. I know how they feel!”
My partners? Oh, yes, Dan and Lil. How happy were they, I wondered. Happy enough to get back together? My mood fell, even though a part of me said that Dan would never go back to her, not after all we’d been through together.
“I’m glad you’re glad. We couldn’t have done it without you, and it looks like we’ll be open for business in a week.”
“Oh, I should think so. Are you coming to the party tonight?”
Party? Probably something the Liberty Square ad-hocs were putting on. I would almost certainly be persona non grata. “I don’t think so,” I said, carefully. “I’ll probably work late here.”
He chided me for working too hard, but once he saw that I had no intention of being dragged to the party, he left off.
And that’s how I came to be in the Mansion at 2 a.m. the next morning, dozing in a backstage break room when I heard a commotion from the parlor. Festive voices, happy and loud, and I assumed it was Liberty Square ad-hocs coming back from their party.
I roused myself and entered the parlor.
Kim and her friends were there, pushing hand-trucks of Debra’s gear. I got ready to shout something horrible at them, and that’s when Debra came in. I moderated the shout to a snap, opened my mouth to speak, stopped.
Behind Debra were Lil’s parents, frozen these long years in their canopic jars in Kissimmee.