Nora laughed and finally relented, setting the spoon down before the cup turned into liquid candy.
They sipped in comfortable silence for a beat, the sound of pie forks and low conversation filling the background like an old friendhumming nearby.
“Well,” Leanne finally said, breaking the stillness, “that was a heck of a thing, wasn’t it?”
Nora snorted into her overly sweetened coffee. “If someone had told me this was how I’d spend my summer—following Grandma across the country as she played rock festivals—I would’ve laughed. Or cried. Or called the cops.”
“I would’ve thought they were intoxicated,” Leanne replied, shaking her head. “And there’s been plenty of things floating around these crowds to justify that theory.”
“Maybe that’s it.” Nora pushed her coffee aside, deciding she’d rather not fall into a coma. “Maybe we ate some funky hot dogs.”
“Or sipped on psychedelic soda.” Leanne took another bite of pie, lips twitching with amusement.
“Honestly, I think the brownies are safer.”
They both chuckled, partly in relief and also in disbelief. This week, the whole world had shifted beneath their feet. The only way to survive was to find the humor. And at least they weren’t alone in the journey. The whole world seemed to be following the Dame of Rock and Roll.
Nora leaned back on her stool, her fork chasing a stray blueberry.
“I’ve never seen you like this,” Nora hedged softly.
“Like what?” Her mother licked blueberry juice from her fork.
Nora bit her lip, unsure how much she should say, but then went for it. “Alive.”
Leanne tilted her head, eyes on Nora, and her expression made Nora want to pull back the single word like saying it out loud had caused something deep in her mother’s chest to crack open.
“Well,” she said, “maybe that’s what happens when you chase someone who’s lost. Sometimes, you end up finding yourself too.”
They each took another bite of pie in sync, letting the hum ofdiner life fill in the blanks between sentences. Forks scraped ceramic plates, a waitress refilled someone’s mug, and the radio behind the counter hissed out the twangy and sweet voice of Loretta Lynn. The sounds and smells brought to mind every roadside diner between here and California.
Around them, conversations pinged from sports scores to weekend fishing trips to someone’s cousin who just returned from army basic training and was gearing up to be shipped to Vietnam. But then, a nearby voice caught Nora’s ear.
“…this old woman just walked out onstage with Shep Moon. Blew the damn roof off if there’d been one.”
Nora turned her head slightly, eyes flicking to the booth behind them where a young couple leaned in over a shared milkshake, buzzing with postconcert adrenaline.
“She shredded that guitar. And that voice? Like Janis and Joan Baez had a baby and raised her on cigarettes and whiskey.”
Nora snorted softly into her mug and leaned toward her mom. “Looks like Grandma’s got some fans.”
Leanne shook her head slowly, awe painted plainly across her face. “I just don’t get it. If she could sing like that…why did she wait so long?”
Nora lifted her shoulder in a half shrug. “Obligation?”
Leanne drew in a long breath at the word as if it had taken the wind out of her.
She nodded, then got that far-off look again—the one she wore when she was reliving something no one else could see. Then she met Nora’s gaze with unusual clarity. “Do you really want to go into marketing like your father?”
“What?” Nora hurried to take a bite of the pie so she didn’t have to answer immediately.
“I know you feel like that’s the right path,” Leanne said gently, “butI want you to choose a path that makes you happy. Not one you think others will approve of.”
Nora slowly chewed the blueberry on her fork, letting the fruit burst on her tongue. The syrupy sweetness was suddenly too much—too rich, too real.
She stared down at her plate, then back at her mother. The woman who had spent the last few weeks evolving before her very eyes. The woman who had once walked through life like she was treading on eggshells. The woman who was now wearing Nora’s jeans and eating diner pie with a new kind of steadiness in her voice.
A swell of emotion rose in Nora’s chest, not just from the question but from the weight of the answer she wasn’t sure she should say aloud.
