“That was weird, huh?” she said. She shook her head. “People are strange.” “Are you all right?” She shrugged. “The girl was nice. She said she liked my beard. It was just the old lady who was a jerk.” “She—the woman wasn’t—” “I know what she was or wasn’t,” Talia said lightly. “I’ve seen it before. It’s awful, but it’s not anything I haven’t dealt with. But it’s funny, right?” Linus didn’t find anything about this to be humorous. “What is?” “That there’s so much hope even when it doesn’t seem like it.”
