Maya came because she had been invited specifically by Lucille, who had decided Maya was her kind of person after an 11-minute phone conversation the previous month that Maya described as the most educational call I've ever received. They sit at the Morgan family table, all of them, and the dinner was loud and funny and real, the way good family dinners are when nobody is performing anything. Lucille interrogated Maya about her academic ambitions. And Maya answered with the composed precision of someone who had been waiting for this conversation. James talked to Andre about a development project in Kirkwood that Andre had done renovation work near and the conversation moved from business to neighborhood to the specific question of what Atlanta was becoming and what it should try to preserve.
And Clare sat between them listening to these two men talk about the city they both loved and felt something settle in her chest that she recognized as rightness. After dinner in the kitchen, Patricia Morgan handed Clare a dish towel and started running hot water without preamble, which was the Morgan family's version of choosing someone. "You look different," Patricia said. "Good, different, settled different. " She passed a pot to Clare. Not settled like you gave up.
Settled like you found the ground. She rinsed another dish. There's a difference. Most people never find it. I know, Clare said.
He's a good man, Patricia said. Not as a question. He's the best man I know, Clare said, and meant it without hesitation. The way you mean things when you've had 18 months of distance to confirm them. Patricia nodded.
Passed her another dish. Your grandmother likes the girl. Everyone likes Maya. Maya likes herself, Patricia said. That's what makes the difference.
She paused. She's going to be remarkable. Whatever she decides to do, she's already remarkable, Clare said. She numbers her questions in a notebook. Patricia looked at her.
What does that mean? It means she takes things seriously, Clare said. It means she knows what she wants to know, and she asks for it directly. She dried the pot. She gets that from her father.
From the dining room, they could hear Andre's voice and Maya's voice and Lucille's voice. All three of them in what sounded like a debate about something. Though the specific subject was unclear, James said something that caused a brief silence and then laughter which was rare enough that both Patricia and Clare looked toward the doorway for a second. Patricia smiled. I knew she said that first night when he said you borrowed his coffee maker and he had been watching you for 2 years.