In Sickness and in Lies novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: Her First Sentence

Saturday morning my mother was sitting up in the rehab bed with the speech therapist.

A laminated card of pictures lay in her lap.

Bruce and I came in together.

I had slept four hours at my mother's house after the show, and I was too happy to be tired.

Under the happy sat one fact: Harlow Group, cash, and a board vote on Keane Freight in a week.

The vote could wait until I had seen my mother.

"Look who's here," the therapist said. "Myrna, who's this?"

My mother looked at the card, then at us.

The right side of her face still hung a little.

Her left hand lay on the blanket, and it was moving, slowly, fingers opening and closing.

"That," she said, "is my daughter. And that is the doctor."

I stopped breathing.

Every word was clear.

"Mom."

"I'm... practicing." Her mouth worked. "Don't cry. It's a... rule."

I was already crying.

Bruce put a hand on the back of my chair and kept his face very straight.

"Mrs. Snyder, that was a full sentence."

"Two," my mother said. She looked at him for a long moment. "Walter would have liked you. He'd have said so too loudly."

"I'd have enjoyed that."

"You'll come to Sunday dinner." She turned the good eyebrow on me. "Both. I give orders now."

The therapist laughed out loud.

"Yes, ma'am," Bruce said.

At six that evening, he drove me to his house in Oak Park.

It was a brick two-flat, and a retired couple rented the other side.

His side was bare and clean, with books on the floor in stacks and one good lamp.

He cooked.

He cooked badly, for a man who was so careful with his hands, and he burned the garlic and swore at it.

Keep reading free with an account. Start In Sickness and in Lies from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.