Part 24 (1/2)

She was confused, shrinking, and I pressed on.

”They were with Debra.”

She reeled back as if I'd slapped her.

”I told them I'd bring the whole group back to talk it over.”

She hung her head and her shoulders shook, and I tentatively put an arm around her. She shook it off and sat up. She was crying and laughing at the same time. ”I'll have a ferry sent over,” she said.

I sat in the back of the ferry with Dan, away from the confused and angry ad-hocs. I answered his questions with terse, one-word answers, and he gave up. We rode in silence, the trees on the edges of the Seven Seas Lagoon whipping back and forth in an approaching storm.

The ad-hoc shortcutted through the west parking lot and moved through the quiet streets of Frontierland apprehensively, a funeral procession that stopped the nighttime custodial staff in their tracks.

As we drew up on Liberty Square, I saw that the work-lights were blazing and a tremendous work-gang of Debra's ad-hocs were moving from the Hall to the Mansion, undoing our teardown of their work.

Working alongside of them were Tom and Rita, Lil's parents, sleeves rolled up, forearms bulging with new, toned muscle. The group stopped in its tracks and Lil went to them, stumbling on the wooden sidewalk.

I expected hugs. There were none. In their stead, parents and daughter stalked each other, s.h.i.+fting weight and posture to track each other, maintain a constant, sizing distance.

”What the h.e.l.l are you doing?” Lil said, finally. She didn't address her mother, which surprised me. It didn't surprise Tom, though.

He dipped forward, the shuffle of his feet loud in the quiet night.

”We're working,” he said.

”No, you're not,” Lil said. ”You're destroying. Stop it.”

Lil's mother darted to her husband's side, not saying anything, just standing there.

Wordlessly, Tom hefted the box he was holding and headed to the Mansion.

Lil caught his arm and jerked it so he dropped his load.

”You're not listening. The Mansion is _ours_. _Stop_. _It_.”

Lil's mother gently took Lil's hand off Tom's arm, held it in her own.

”I'm glad you're pa.s.sionate about it, Lillian,” she said. ”I'm proud of your commitment.”

Even at a distance of ten yards, I heard Lil's choked sob, saw her collapse in on herself. Her mother took her in her arms, rocked her. I felt like a voyeur, but couldn't bring myself to turn away.

”Shhh,” her mother said, a sibilant sound that matched the rustling of the leaves on the Liberty Tree. ”Shhh. We don't have to be on the same side, you know.”

They held the embrace and held it still. Lil straightened, then bent again and picked up her father's box, carried it to the Mansion. One at a time, the rest of her ad-hoc moved forward and joined them.

This is how you hit bottom. You wake up in your friend's hotel room and you power up your handheld and it won't log on. You press the call- b.u.t.ton for the elevator and it gives you an angry buzz in return. You take the stairs to the lobby and no one looks at you as they jostle past you.

You become a non-person.

Scared. I trembled when I ascended the stairs to Dan's room, when I knocked at his door, louder and harder than I meant, a panicked banging.