CHAPTER 9
Lil’s parents went into their jars with little ceremony. I saw them just before they went in, when they stopped in at Lil’s and my place to kiss her goodbye and wish her well.
Tom and I stood awkwardly to the side while Lil and her mother held an achingly chipper and polite farewell.
“So,” I said to Tom. “Deadheading.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Yup. Took the backup this morning.”
Before coming to see their daughter, they’d taken their backups. When they woke, this event—everything following the backup—would never have happened for them.
God, they were bastards.
“When are you coming back?” I asked, keeping my castmember face on, carefully hiding away the disgust.
’We’ll be sampling monthly, just getting a digest dumped to us. When things look interesting enough, we’ll come on back.” He waggled a finger at me. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you and Lillian—you treat her right, you hear?”
“We’re sure going to miss you two around here,” I said.