I see the way my sister’s watching Lorna now—frowning a little as though she’s still trying to learn this woman, still trying to absorb her. I wonder if she’s had sharp words with Lorna since finding out the truth; if she’s confronted her in ways that were angry or resentful. I’m not really getting that impression. I think maybe the resentment is a switch Abigail has chosen not to activate.

“You don’t have any kids?” Sam says, then glances at Abigail. “I mean, you know. Besides…”

Lorna shakes her head.

“No, my dear. I didn’t really have that sort of a lifestyle.”

I don’t hear regret in her voice. It’s interesting—the way Mom talked about Lorna, I was expecting something of a lost soul, I guess. Someone who never really found a way to get what she wanted from life. But Lorna doesn’t strike me that way.

Sam seems mesmerized by the idea of this grandmother who isn’t anyone’s actual grandmother.

“So…what do you do?” he says, apparently struggling to picture the life of someone of her generation who doesn’t seem to crochet, bake, or compare stories of grandkids with her fellow-grandmas.

Lorna laughs and tells him about her world here: the shelter she volunteers at; the reading group and AA group she goes to. Sam asks her what an AA group is, and she explains it to him carefully and without shame.

“But it’s like…a hangout?” Sam says.

She smiles.

“Some of those people have become my best friends over the years, Sam. We know each other’s demons, so to speak. It’s terribly valuable to have friends like that.”

“Did Mom meet any of those friends?” Sam casts a look Abigail’s way.

“I didn’t want to overwhelm your mother,” Lorna says gently. “She and I had plenty to talk about just between the two of us. And, well, I haven’t been terribly active the last couple of weeks, I’ll admit.”

Sam nods carefully.

“I’m sorry you were sick,” he says. “Mom said you had to get an operation.”

“Yes,” Lorna says, so that I can tell Abigail has briefed her on what we’re not yet saying to Sam.

“I know a kid at school who had to be rushed to hospital in the middle of the night because of her appendix,” Sam says.

“That sounds dramatic,” Lorna says. “Thankfully, no one had to rush me anywhere in the middle of the night.” She sips her glass of water. “Meanwhile, I’d love to hear more about you, Sam. Your mom has told me so much already.”

Sam shrugs deeper into his hoodie, glances sidelong at me.