The Weight of Love

Chapter 19

On Wednesday afternoon, Emily's voice accompanied Lila via phone to the train station. Her best friend was preparing for an impromptu camping weekend that her parents had sprung on her and her younger brother just that morning.

"It's just like them. As if I want to hike. At least they let me invite James."

"That's really chill of them. You're lucky," Lila said, climbing up the steps into the train terminal. She tapped her card at the gates and went through, hurrying down the stairs to track level, where she found a quiet, shaded spot on a bench about halfway down the platform.

"Lucky? It's supposed to be hotter there than it is here." Emily groaned over the phone. "We're going to be sweating balls going up Mt. whatever it's called, and James is going to be there with me."

"You know, someone once said that if you want to know someone, you should climb a mountain with them," Lila teased.

"You smart ass. Anyway, I have to go. Good luck. Call me later?"

"Maybe later. Tomorrow, at the least. Bye!"

Lila hung up and cast her eyes up and down the platform. There were a few others taking the train into the city at this hour, but not many. She fidgeted where she sat, questioning her choice of dress again. Was it professional enough for the meeting? Cute enough for her date afterward? She'd settled on a skirt and a floral blouse, the type of thing she would have worn to school on a presentation day.

Beneath her arm lay a few rolled up canvases, bundled together with masking tape. That morning, she'd agonized over which ones to bring, and she'd settled on the ones she'd shown Cameron along with a few others that provided a more representative sample of her work.

She was nervous. She'd already programmed her phone to display directions from the train station to Ed Krueger's gallery. It was a short walk. The journey from the gallery to Cameron's apartment, on the other hand, would not be as insubstantial, but she figured that it would be a welcome chance to clear her head after her meeting. She took a deep breath and hopped up from her bench as the train came in.

The ride was brief and thankfully unmarked by delays. She got off in the city and walked swiftly to her destination. The gallery was called, simply, Krueger's, and operated out of a glass-faced brick building that she did, in fact, remember, though it took her a moment to place it. She was certain she'd been there before. She remembered holding her father's hand as they walked together through the glass double doors. Had her mother been there with them? She couldn't remember. She did remember that she'd been wearing a poofy dress. They had been attending a fancy event... or something.

She walked up to the doors and, taking another deep breath, pulled one of them open and walked in by herself. Electronic chimes rang out, and she stopped just inside, casting her eyes about. She'd entered a large white space hung with paintings here and there, but it seemed that inventory was being changed -- a young man on a stepladder looked across the room at her.

"Just a minute, please," he said.

She stood still. On a pillar in the center of the room hung a series of small canvases in black and white, their totality forming a mosaic of some sort. She stared at them, entranced.

"Ah, I see you've noticed the work of Adeline Edmonds," came a voice to her right, and she almost jumped. The worn, tanned face of Ed Krueger broke into a smile, and he extended his hand to her. "Lila. You found the place all right."

"I d- did," she stammered, taking his proffered hand. She was shocked, shocked to find that this man she hadn't seen in over a decade looked much the same as she remembered him, just a little more lined and weather-worn. "Thanks so much for having me, Mr. Krueger."