Because the Night

mayhem at the mountain house

If Lily thought that Annabelle would process her disappearance on the trail with a shrug, she was sadly mistaken. After the fact, she swore she could feel the hum of the place's changed energy as she approached. 

When they passed the doorman — the same one who had smiled funnily at Lily when she asked Diego to join her on the walk, what seemed like a month ago — he nodded solemnly. "I knew you'd come back." 

Diego didn't stop to talk to him, just gave a tiny laugh of acknowledgment. Lily got the sense that he wanted to go to his room, bury his head in his pillow, and scream for a while in the key of self pity. But she could be wrong. She could be projecting. She could be saying what she wanted to do. 

Lily didn't get the chance to process her afternoon in solitude. The instant she walked in the hotel doors, the valets working luggage, "She's here!" Which set off a chain of people shouting, "She's here!"

Lily looked over her shoulder. Who was this "she" they were talking about? Then she realized the valets and coat check were talking about her. The front desk concierge immediately reached for the phone because of her. She was she. 

Then, down the stairs came Annabelle, a blur of blond hair terror. Lily hadn't seen her mother so obviously scared in at least ten years, aside from that summer when  her father left and Annabelle had to do the gruesome chores like cockroach maintenance and answering the door late at night. "Lily!" she shouted, then grabbed her daughter by the shoulders. "Where did you go?" 

Lily felt like a child. She shrugged her mom's arms off her shoulder. "Mom," she said, as if saying that loudly and harshly enough would restore her independence. 

Instead, her mom repeated it again. "Where did you go, Lily? You can't just disappear in the woods like that." 

Before Lily could stop him, Diego fumbled his way into the conversation.  "Actually, the woods are really safe here. We haven't had an injury in years." 

It was not wise to engage with Annabelle in fighter mode. She glanced disparagingly at Diego. In Lily's eyes, Diego was a 6'4" tower of beauty. But she saw how her mother saw him, then: As a stupid boy, a distraction, a danger,  someone who could lure Lily off the path (literally and metaphorically). 

"I'm so comforted to know she was safe while stumbling around the woods by herself. Lily, you can barely walk without tripping. What were you thinking?" 

Lily didn't know what to say that would let her keep Annabelle and Diego. To her surprise, Diego spoke for her — again. 

"It was my fault," he said. "I suggested we take another route, down toward the Giant's Tower. It's a stop along the path to Eagle Creek." 

"Ah," Annabelle said, understanding. "She wasn't alone."

"No," Lily said. "We were walking together. I figured –"

"You figured since I was walking with Al you could just take off and I wouldn't notice."

"Mom," Lily said. "I'm not 16!" 

Annabelle shook her head. "You really don't get it, do you? You're an adult now, but your choices are always going to affect me — and others. You're acting like you're 16. If you weren't ashamed of what you were about to do, you would't just shouted at me that you were taking off on some path with your tango teacher." 

Diego swallowed like he wanted to say something. What? That he was more than a dance instructor, he was a Moody? 

"Like you would've approved!" Lily said.