“Are we talking about the same Marie?” Lita scratched her nose. “Nah, I’ve never known her to camp.” The old woman furrowed her brows. She looked like a wizened gnome. “It has been a while since she’s visited me. ’Course, all the days seem to run together when you’re stuck under one roof. What’s she up to?”

“Marie?”

“Yeah, Marie. What kind of trouble did she get herself into?”

“What makes you think she’s in trouble?”

“She used to come to me when she was in trouble. Used to do that all the time when she was a teenager. ‘Ma, I’m in trouble. Give me money.’ Long as she was okay, she didn’t want anything from me. ’Course, I was a shitty mother. I didn’t want much to do with her, either. Two stubborn bodies under one roof. It wasn’t good. Neither one of us would give in.”

Talking about the past, the old woman seemed on surer footing.

“I remember once Marie wanted a dog. I said no, but that didn’t stop her. Marie got herself a dog. Took care of her, too. I was surprised. But that was Marie. Fanatically loyal, and loyal to the point of fanatical.”

“To people?”

“People, ideas. She believed in free love to the point of fanatical. It was the times—late sixties and early seventies. The sexual revolution. Kids were wild, especially up north—land of the flower child. People living on the street in Haight-Ashbury, screwing everything in sight.” Lita shook her head. “Miserable time to be a mother.”

There was regret in Lita’s voice. Not at having to rear a child during turbulent times, but because she hadn’t been young herself back then. Decker asked, “Did Marie ever get pregnant?”

Lita burst into laughter. “More times than a rabbit.”

“What happened to the babies?”

“She didn’t have babies, she had abortions.”

“She never carried any of her pregnancies to term?”

“Not so far as I know. When she was away at the university, I don’t know what she did. My daughter just couldn’t keep her legs together.” Lita laughed. “Wonder where she learned that from.”

Decker didn’t touch that one.

Lita said, “She did it to spite me. You know, give me a taste of my own medicine. She wasted her time. I don’t regret my life. Got some nice memories. In fact, that’s all I got right now.”

“She lived with you when she was in her early teens, didn’t she, Lita?”

“Yep.”

“And she didn’t have a child when she was around fifteen?”

Lita stared at him. “Of course not. I’d have known about it if she did.” She paused, her eyes far away. “Might have been nice to have a grandchild…someone else to visit me.”

“She didn’t have a baby and give it away for adoption?”