“And you drove all the way down to Philadelphia.” Edith looked up at the clock on the wall between the two framed posters of the California coastline. “Are you sure she really wanted to see me?”

I hoped Edith wasn’t keeping track of the time.

“Of course she wants to see you.” It was a shade of the truth. The daughter had been hesitant, but when I told her about the sweet eighty-year-old woman who missed her, she had agreed to meet at the diner when she was on a trip to Albany with her husband.

The new waitress, Alicia, flashed me a wide smile from the counter. She was the only one here I had let in on the plan. Her intelligent eyes darted to the front door. She sensed my apprehension. I just shrugged.

Edith said, “Maybe she changed her mind. She’s waited this long. I bet it was too much for her.”

Alicia came by with some coffee for us and chatted with Edith about her homemade sweater and how nice her new glasses looked.

Alicia, God bless her, knew to keep Edith’s mind off the time.

I said, “Edith, there could have been a mix-up. Although the roads are clear, it’s awfully cold and it might’ve changed Linda’s plans. Should we wait at your house where you might be more comfortable?”

“But what if Linda shows up and we’re not here?”

I looked at Alicia, who was still standing right next to our booth, and said, “I bet I could talk Alicia into calling us if Linda comes later.”

Alicia nodded. She had replaced Mabel, a young woman whose death was still a mystery and haunted me. I respected the fact that Alicia had moved back to Marlboro to care for her father while he recovered from a stroke.

Just as I got Edith to her feet and we turned toward the front, I noticed a woman in an expensive leather coat standing silently just inside the door. It took me a moment to realize it was the same woman I’d spoken to in Pennsylvania three weeks earlier. She just stared at us. That’s when my anger melted away. This woman was scared.

As I held Edith by the arm, I felt her tense and knew that she had recognized her daughter even after two and a half decades. Edith took a tentative step forward. The few people in the diner didn’t even realize what was happening, but Alicia did. She wrapped my hand in hers and squeezed it.

I watched in excited silence as Edith moved closer to her daughter. Suddenly Linda burst forward and hugged her mother. They both started to cry. So did Alicia. Damn it, so did I, but I was able to cover it well.

They both plopped down in the booth closest to where they’d been standing, holding each other’s hands across the table.