CHAPTER TEN C: THE CUSTOMER WHO CAME BACK
Nora arrived at the diner eleven minutes late and found her manager waiting beside the register.
He told her that punctuality mattered more than whatever personal project had captured her attention.
She apologized for the delay without explaining the workshop visit.
He said that her next late arrival would cost her a shift.
Nora tied on her apron and began serving the breakfast crowd.
An hour later, a woman in a gray coat entered and asked for the booth beneath the harbor photograph.
Nora recognized her from the preservation meeting but could not remember her name.
The woman ordered tea and waited until Nora returned with the pot.
She introduced herself as Mara Coyle, an accountant who had worked for the theater’s final administrative committee.
Nora asked whether Mara had come to discuss Walter.
Mara said that she had come to discuss the way people were treating Nora.
She had heard about the anonymous complaint and the missing shifts.
Nora asked who had told her.
Mara said that a former theater volunteer had overheard the manager talking about it.
Nora felt a surge of anger at the thought of strangers discussing her wages.
Mara apologized for bringing the matter into the diner.
She explained that she had once been responsible for keeping the theater’s staff schedules.
During the final season, she had seen performers punished for asking inconvenient questions.
She recognized the pattern of making an ordinary worker feel replaceable.
Nora told her that the diner was not part of the theater.
Mara agreed.
She said that the resemblance mattered precisely because the situations were different.
Nora asked what Mara wanted from her.
Mara said that she wanted to know whether Nora had seen a particular woman at the theater meeting.
She described a short woman with silver hair and a green wool scarf.
Nora remembered seeing someone matching that description near the exit.
Mara said that the woman was Florence Dyer, Malcolm’s older sister.
Florence had been the theater’s volunteer coordinator when Peter was injured.
She had later become a school music teacher and avoided public discussion of the accident.
Nora asked why Florence mattered.
Mara said that Florence had been present when the company dismissed three apprentices immediately after the accident.
She knew who had been told to leave and who had been allowed to remain.
Nora wondered whether Florence might remember Leona.
Mara said that she probably would.
She also warned that Florence had defended Malcolm for years.
Nora carried another pot of tea to a nearby table before answering.
When she returned, she told Mara that she would not approach Florence as though guilt had already been established.
Mara smiled sadly and said that she wished more people had made that choice thirty years earlier.
Before leaving, she paid for her tea and placed her own telephone number beneath the receipt.
She said that Nora could call if she wanted a witness to the way staff had been treated.
Nora watched her go and wondered how many lives the old theater had touched without anyone noticing.
