Chapter 17: Her Mother's Doctor

I got my jeans on and was down the half stair before Simone had finished buttoning my shirt.

I unlocked the street door.

My mother stood on the step with the casserole dish held in front of her.

"I need to talk to you," she said. "Alone."

"Mom, this is Simone Stegner. It's her studio."

"I know who she is." My mother looked past me into the long room, at the wall of brides, at the laptop. "You're the one with the video."

"I posted the minute you didn't see, Mrs. Mercer," Simone said from the stair. "You're welcome to sit down."

My mother did not sit down.

She stood on the studio floor in her church coat and said it all in one breath.

"Lacey rang me at eight."

She took a breath.

"She said Dustin was in a terrible state in a diner, and you've been keeping him from his medication."

"Mom."

"She's told the prayer chain, and they have him down as critical. I came to see if it was true."

"What medication?" I said.

"His pills. The ones for his nerves. Lacey gives him two a day, from the doctor."

"Which doctor?"

"Her mother's doctor, in Toledo. She was kind enough to ask for him."

"Mom," I said. "Has Dustin ever been to a doctor?"

She opened her mouth.

I watched her go through it, slowly, year by year.

"He was nervous," she said. "When he was nineteen. We thought it would pass."

"Did he ever see anyone?"

"Lacey said it was easier to get the pills through her mother."

Simone had gone still against the stair rail.

"I want to show you something," I said. "It's a short drive."

"I've got a casserole in my hands, Dean."

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