“So how are you?” Milagra asked as she sat down at the kitchen table with her mother. Maddie set a cup of tea down in front of her.
“I’m fine. How are you? I thought you just finished a book. You’re starting another one?”
“I had the idea in the shower this morning. Sometimes it happens that way, the next idea rolls out right away, or sometimes it takes a lot longer. They want to give me a four-book contract next time.”
“That’s great. I just drove out from New York,” Maddie said by way of conversation. She didn’t usually bother Milagra with the details of her life. Milagra didn’t want to know.
“Why did you do that?” Milagra looked puzzled.
“I wanted to see some people on the way. I stopped in Boston and Chicago, and I went to Wyoming. I was hoping to see Andy, but he died two months ago. I saw Sean, and he sends you his love. He’s married and has two little boys, and they’re expecting twin girls.” Milagra smiled at the report and nodded. She didn’t react to Andy’s death at first. She digested it for a while.
“That’s sad about Andy. Was he sick?” she finally asked her mother.
“Yes, he was.”
“Are you still in love with him?” She always went right to the heart of the matter.
“I loved him, and I was sad when Sean told me he died. But I can’t say I was ‘in love’ with him anymore. I hadn’t seen him in seventeen years. That’s a long time to carry a torch.”
“Some people do,” Milagra said dreamily. “I’m a vegan now.” She had been a vegetarian before, and her mother could see she’d lost weight. She was rail thin. It also ruled out the croissants Maddie had bought, which were made with butter.
“What do you eat?”
“Mostly greens and beans. I eat a lot of lentils, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale. Bert always tries to get me to eat fish, but I won’t.”
“Who’s Bert?” Catching up with Milagra was always a challenge. It was like coming in at the middle of a movie. Maddie was never sure who the players were from year to year, although for the most part Milagra led a very solitary life. She needed time to write her books. Maddie worried at times that she lived in an imaginary world, and not a very healthy one at that.
“He’s a friend,” she said in answer to her mother’s question, and offered no further explanation. “Do you want to go for a walk?”
“It’s wet out. There was a heavy mist when I came in.”
“I’ll give you a slicker. I love it like this.” Maddie always did whatever Milagra wanted. She was grateful to see her. She was like a mirage that appeared from time to time and then vanished again. They took the dogs with them and walked to the beach. The dogs loped along and didn’t seem to mind the damp weather. They dug for shells in the sand once in a while, or ran off with a stick, and Milagra ran with them. She was long and sleek and graceful, and smiled at her mother as they strolled along slowly.
They went back to the house an hour later. Maddie was chilled to the bone. Milagra shook out her damp hair and took off her slicker, just as Maddie noticed a big plastic bag on the porch. She picked it up, and it smelled of seafood. She peeked inside and it was full of fresh crab.
“Bert dropped it off for you,” Milagra explained, then took it and made a face at the smell. “Do you like crab?” She knew very little about her mother. She only paid attention to herself.
“I love it.” It was fresh and local.
“Who is this Bert? It’s the second time you’ve mentioned him since I got here.” Milagra didn’t answer, took out a big pot and filled it with water to cook the crab.
“He’s just a friend,” she finally answered, same response as before, with no further explanation.
“It was nice of him to bring crab for me.”
“I told him I thought you’d like it.” The way she spoke of him, and refused to answer questions about him, made him sound like an imaginary friend. Milagra had had several when she was growing up. One of them had lasted for several years, a little girl named Jennifer that Milagra said she played with. She outgrew them eventually, but it took a while. All the doctors had ever been able to tell Maddie about Milagra was that she was different. There was nothing wrong with her that they could tell, and she tested normally. She wasn’t learning delayed, in fact she was very bright, but she was socially awkward and had an overactive imagination, and now she was making a living from it with her novels. She had had crushes in school, but she’d never really dated, and high school boys didn’t want to deal with girls like Milagra. They wanted bold, social ones who wore short skirts, had big breasts, and were willing to make out in parked cars. They didn’t want to deal with girls as fey as Milagra. She had won a poetry prize in college, and published her first novel at nineteen. She’d been writing them ever since.
Milagra towel-dried the dogs, and when the water boiled, Maddie dropped the crab in. It was going to make a delicious dinner and it was a shame Milagra wouldn’t eat it. “You’re sure you won’t try some?” Maddie tried to tempt her, but she made a face and shook her head. Maddie had an odd feeling that there was something Milagra wasn’t telling her, but she had no idea what it was.
A little while later, Maddie was startled when she heard a phone ring. She wasn’t even sure Milagra had one, but she pulled it out of a cupboard and answered. Maddie could only hear Milagra’s side of the conversation.
“Mom says she loves it. She’s cooking it for dinner….I’ll call you later.”
“I’m never sure if you still have a phone,” Maddie said casually.
“I do. I don’t answer it most of the time, and sometimes I forget to pay the bill, so it lapses for a while until I pay. Bert says I need one, it’s safer. So I have one.” At least he was an imaginary friend who knew how to use a phone. “I don’t use it most of the time, except when he calls me.”
“Is he like a boyfriend, or just a friend?” Maddie asked bravely, and Milagra shrugged.
“I don’t know. I don’t see him when I’m writing,” she said, which was almost all the time.
“Does he live around here?” She was curious now. She couldn’t remember the last time Milagra had a man in her life. And if she did now, it was a major change since Maddie had last seen her. Maddie hated knowing so little about her daughter’s life. But Milagra preferred it that way, and Maddie tried to respect it.
“He lives in Fort Bragg.” It was the port several miles away. “He checks on me to make sure I’m okay. He’s a good person.” The crab was cooked by then and Maddie drained it, and put it on a platter to cool off. There was far more than she could eat alone.