There were only a couple of construction workers in layered, tattered plaids and jeans doing shots at the counter. Linda and Seth sat down at the coveted corner table near the sliding glass door to the balcony. Seth quickly rose to fetch a beer for him and a wine spritzer for her. When he returned, she said "Why did you come out here, anyway? To nit pick at me again?"
Linda was saving for…something.
When she'd first come out after graduation and got the job at Jewish, she lived in Jeannie's old bedroom. She helped Jeannie's mother through her long period of grief. Then, she found the place in Mt. Holyoke. After nearly two and half years at Jewish, she'd saved more than ten thousand dollars.
"No," he said, as he sat down. "I just found out they're finally making some headway on the case."
The last Linda had heard, the arena management company was dragging things out with appeal after appeal. "They are? Are they going to settle?"
"That's what they're hoping for."
"How much?"
Seth shrugged. "Five mill apiece." He took a swig directly from the long-necked beer, casually talking about the figure as if he was bragging about poker winnings.
"That's fantastic!" Linda said, thinking about all of the comfort it would bring to both sets of parents. "It won't bring Jeannie and Lauren back, but it would really help things."
"Yeah," he said.
As the day outside the window turned to dusk, the crowd inside Willie's gathered as men and women in business dress claimed tables and started rounds of cocktails. Seth got up and started to play darts against one of the construction workers, leaving Linda alone at the table, to reflect. During the recent holiday season, she'd driven out to her parents for a few days, when before, she'd spent them with Ruth Ann and Herb, Jeannie's parents.
She hadn't thought about Jeannie or Lauren in months.
About a year after the tragedy, Lauren came to her in a dream. They walked together.
It seemed as though it was autumn, since the field where they walked surrounded a school while the leaves turned yellow and orange and fell. Linda was lucid, absolutely locked in, riveted on Lauren. She knew she shouldn't hold her too close but couldn't help crying too hard. Both things could make everything cloudy and fizzle out, then Linda would wake up, frustrated.
"It's you! It's really you!" Linda kept saying.
Lauren nodded. Her hair was fuller and lighter, glistening in the autumn light. "And yeah, you, you really know what's going on! This is great!" Her skin was smoother, and glowed.