Scenes from the novel II

Emily sat patiently in the booth. Mr Pimm had said he’d be back in just a few minutes, but it seemed like she’d been waiting forever, sitting there by herself. The waitress was really nice, but by now Emily was tired of nice strangers. They had been on the road for two weeks, and Mr. Pimm still had not told her where they were going, or why.

Today she had on her yellow dress, the good one that Mom had bought her, back before – before everything had happened. This morning Emily had insisted on wearing it, on dressing up, before leaving the hotel room, even though she knew they were just going to a stupid diner to eat. Sometimes things just matter, she told herself. Even if some people don’t get it.

She went back to staring at the salt shaker. She tried to put the sounds of the diner out of her mind, all the stupid loud conversations going on at once. Why did people insist on chattering away like that, even when they didn’t have anything really to talk about? Well, that wasn’t her problem. The salt shaker was.

She kept looking at it steadily, keeping her eyes resolutely on the beveled glass edge around the bottom, trying to ignore the pepper shaker right next to it, not even letting herself think about the ketchup bottle. For a long moment she stared. It wasn’t really like concentrating, more like kind of letting her mind go blank. Finally the salt shaker moved just the tiniest bit, maybe a quarter inch, and then it stopped. But that was enough.

She leaned back in the booth, feeling a little tired, but that was ok. She knew it was going to get easier each time, if she just kept on practicing. Mr. Pimm came back a few moments later, and she noticed he was peering at her, frowning. “Is everything all right Emily?” He sounded concerned, like maybe he thought she was coming down with something.

“Everything’s just fine Mr. Pimm,” she said, and gave him her best smile. Everything really was just fine.

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