“Nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Royal.” My mother shook the tips of her fingers. Professor Royal folded both hands behind his back, which made his belly jut out and hit the side of our table.

“Hello, Matilda,” Mrs. Royal said.

“You know my daughter?” my mother asked.

“Yes, she came into my shop a few weeks ago with her friend.”

A memory I would have preferred to forget.

“I haven’t seen you since, Matilda. Please know you are always welcome.”

She dipped the spectacles on her nose in my direction and for a second I thought that maybe she could see me sinking deeper into my seat. Or worse—she had xray vision and knew exactly where the little box of purple stationery was hidden.

“She mentioned your shop. It sounds lovely. We will have to come together some time.” She raised her glass to the Royals and I watched as the bug juice came dangerously close to spilling.

“Have a wonderful evening, Terry,” Professor Royal said as he led Mrs. Royal to their table.

Debi came over with our meals. I piled as much of the fixings onto my hamburger as I could; when I finished, I could barely fit the sandwich into my mouth. My mother held her fork in her hand daintily, as though it were a feather. A slice of onion slipped out from the bun and slapped on to the table loudly. She looked up, but didn’t say a word. I couldn’t help myself. “So now you’re Terry?”

She smiled and shook her head. “He’s just someone I work with, Matilda.”

“I see that, Mom. I just didn’t know that now you are Terry. It would be nice if you let me in on these kinds of things every once in a while.” A pickle escaped from my hamburger and I finally put it back on the plate and gave up on the possibility of being able to eat the monstrosity I had created.

She was quiet for a few minutes. “Matilda, I have and always will take care of you. And that is all you need to know.” Then she sliced into a piece of steak that was so rare, it almost looked blue.

“What about Franny? Do you always take care of her, too?”

The sound of her knife as it scraped against the plate screeched in my ear.

“C’mon, Terry. Did it just get too hard? Is that why you left her behind like a pair of old shoes?”

She stared down at her plate and for a second it looked as if she closed her eyes. “You don’t understand,” she whispered.