"We didn't meet by chance, did we."
"Not exactly."
"Hah. Not at all. What scheme was it?"
"It wasn't a scheme, Alma." Molly's voice held that extra fullness of a nascent chuckle. She wasn't laughing at me. My vehemence always amazed her.
"What then?"
"I had heard of you. I had heard you were a fine carpenter and reliable besides. When I needed those repairs at the clinic I asked you."
"You didn't say you'd heard of me."
"You didn't ask."
"Why should I? You were pulling slivers out of my hand."
"I was squeezing out pus you'd neglected."
"That too. The thing is, you mentioned it like you just saw I was a carpenter on that form I had to fill in."
"Yes, I can see how you could look at it that way. I recognized your name. I never thought to mention it."
"Just feeling instinctively that people don't like to hear that they've been spoken highly of and their work referred to favorably."

Molly did laugh then.
I'd expected it, though. I'd laid the groundwork with my acerbity which wasn't all that serious with her. I don't know why, but she called that remnant out in me. She was a fine doctor. She was dedicated, and she cared.
And then, of course, there was her child Jaak.
I couldn't get past that. Seeing her at work every day applying her skills to the comfort and restoration of others, looking into her sapphire blue eyes, I never could get past the mystery of her coping with that.
"How did you find out about me?"

She said what I expected. What I'd wanted to pull from her. "From Cella."
"Yet you never, in all the years, mentioned that you'd known Cella."
"Why aggravate you more than you were? You clearly hated your ties to your family. I didn't want to drive you away by indicating any knowledge of them."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I like you, Alma, irrespective of any family frame we all come with. I value your friendship."
"Cella, you mean. You did it for Cella."
"Cella was an amazing woman. But you are someone else, and in my opinion as fine. I value your friendship, Alma. I care for you. I don't know how else or how much plainer I can state it. You'll have to decide to believe me or not."

"How did you find out?"
"Adonie. I was talking with Adonie." Then I had a sudden thought. It pierced me with its clarity and its rightness. "You knew Adonie before, didn't you."
"Well--"
"I mean before she brought Olive for a check up. You knew her, too."