36
D illon spotted them and pushed his way through the crowd. His smile and sheer unadulterated joy matched Elena’s. He told the young woman, “I thought I heard your dulcet tones.”
“That’s not the words Mom uses when I yell.”
“Hi, Olivia. You’re late.”
Elena said, “We got held up. Girl thingies.”
“Let’s get these inside.” He nudged his way through the crowd, slipped around a makeshift barrier, and entered the fire station through the open bay doors. “They’re here.”
Bailey came rushing over. “Where have you been?”
“Making pretty pictures,” Elena replied.
Olivia demanded, “Who are all these people?”
“Getting in the way!” Bailey wailed her response. “We’ll never be ready in time!”
“Sure we will.” Nothing seemed capable of disturbing Dillon’s good mood.
“The governor will be here in . . .” She pulled out her phone.
But before she could continue, the entire fire station shouted in chorus, “Three hours!”
“Less,” Bailey said. She shouted back. “Don’t make fun of the mayor in meltdown!”
Which was when Elena handed Dillon her pile of photographs, slung her arms around her mother’s neck, and declared, “I love you more than chocolate.”
Bailey’s mouth formed a perfect O.
Elena bounced back a step. “Everything’s going to be great. Right, Dillon?”
“Absolutely.”
Elena took the photographs back from Dillon and headed for the rear wall. She called to Olivia, “Come on, we’ve got a hanging to do!”
Bailey watched her daughter skip away, then turned to Olivia with, “Who is that mystery child, and what have you done with my daughter?”
“I’ll explain later,” Olivia said. She followed Elena, happy as she’d been in a very long while.
Together with Elena she laid out a basic concept, leaning the photographs against the rear wall, trying for what she thought of as emotive flow. They repositioned them several times, lining them as they talked through the process. Elena twice drew her mother over, supposedly to offer guidance. But Olivia suspected it was mostly so the two of them could argue.
After Bailey’s second visit, they began measuring the placement and marking the walls. Elena insisted on measuring, and probably did a better job. She hummed fragments of a song Olivia did not recognize, then broke off to announce, “Mom says I’m not grateful enough. So thanks, by the way.”
“You’re most welcome.”
Elena hummed a few more bars, then added, “What you said made me feel almost as good as talking to Dillon.”
Olivia stepped back a few paces, and surveyed their planned structure. She decided they were ready to hang. “What did he say?”
“Pretty much the same thing. Only with math. Actually, I was the one with the math. Dillon just had the right answer. Sort of.”
“Is it okay if I don’t understand what you just said?”
“Oh, sure. I get that all the time.” Elena stepped back and stood beside Olivia. “Are we after perfection or getting the job done?”
As if in response, Bailey chose that moment to yell, “Okay, people, listen up! The governor will be here in two hours .”