20.
The
hostess’s name was Tess. She and her own
mom were incredibly close (not in a way that warms the hearts of witnesses,
though; they accepted each other wholly and had unquestioningly relied on each
other as a matter of survival at times, but neither one was expressive of
affection, or enjoyed completely the traits of the other). Therefore, she could not empathize with
Molly’s situations, of searching for a mother's whose whereabouts were
unknown. Throughout her young life, Tess
had had many friends who’d run away from home (a couple not surviving their
adventures), and that was a narrative she instinctively understood; a child
seeing no way to become important except by prematurely asserting what little
personality the young person has so far developed. Consequently, she couldn’t help but treat
Molly like a mother who’d been fled from, and it made her feel sorry for
her. The awkward way Richard flirted
made her feel protective towards him as well, so she spent most of the rest of
the party taking bong hits with them and making plans for the next day, when
she would call her ex-boyfriend who'd invited the possible Beth over, and then
finding the possible Beth, Vivienne.
"I wish we were sisters," Molly told Tess at one point in the
pretty, wrecked dawn of a summer day in Philly, apropos of nothing. It was sweet to hear a thing like that.
In the morning light, George awoke,
sore and depressed, and felt further saddened to see a stranger asleep on the
couch, because he correctly guessed that Richard and Molly had met her last
night and she would be helping them find Beth.
He wanted the event of finding her to occur in an environment of quiet
and seriousness, without anyone peripheral to witness the rescue.
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