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patting her hand. “ But there is nothing in th at chair . See how dusty it is? If someone had sat in it, the dust would be smudged or gone and it’s not. You’re probably just having an emotional reaction to being in her house and having to deal with all the stuff she left behind .”
    “Twice, Mom?” Jan asked. “I’ve never seen ghosts before. And I’m not an emotional person, normally. I’m basically calm and controlled. And I know what I saw.”
    Laura shuddered and glanced around the room. “Well, whatever it was, it seems to be gone, now. So let’s get back to work. It’ll be dark soon.”
    “Okay.” Jan rose and moved to the built - in cupboards on either side of the fireplace and opened one door. “There are quite a few photo albums in here. How about I just take them home to sort out later?”
    “ Good idea. Those wi ll take hours to go through. Will you have enough room in your little car? Maybe you could box them up and ship them to your apartment? We won’t have time to go through them all before I have to leave tomorrow. ”
    “All right.” With a sigh, Jan agreed. Th is project was going to eat up more and more of her summer vacation time.
    They worked for a couple more hours .
    As promised, t he garage returned her car, complete with new tires, so, as dusk set in, they went back to town, taking a box of photo albums to examine at their motel. After showering off the dust from their work, they put on clean clothes and went to a different little restaurant for dinner.
    The scents of coffee and French fries met their nose as they walked in. A harried waitress carrying a large tray of food greeted them with a smile and a cheery, “Sit anywhere,” then moved on to deliver her orders to a noisy table full of teenagers.
    They found a table towards the back and perused the menu stuck in a holder. A few minutes later, a waitress came over and took their orders.
    “I can’t believe I’ll be thousands of miles away by dinner time tomorrow,” Laura said. “I’ll miss everyone. But this is my job.”
    “I know, Mom. I’ll miss you, too,” Jan replied, patting her mother’s hand. “You’ll just have to convince your husband to come back for visits more often.”
    Laura pursed her lips and sighed , shaking her head . “ Carl doesn’t like to travel . And it’s not easy for me to get time off the set, either. Screws up their shooting schedule, you know.”
    Jan nodded and leaned back for the waitress to set plates in front of them. “Oh, this smells good!”
    Laura eyed the chicken fried steak. “Oh, it does. But goodness, I’ll bet it’s fattening. Why didn’t I just order a salad? I’ll have to diet for a week to make up for eating this.”
    Jan smiled at her mother’s comment. Laura always said things like that, but seldom followed through. “ Only eat half , then. But Mom, you know you can eat anything and never gain an ounce.”
    “Hmm,” Laura said with a sniff. “You just never see me dieting. I do it in private.”
    Jan raised a disbelieving brow and cut into her steak. No point in arguing with Laura . You could never win.
    Half-way through the delicious meal, a portly man in a business suit stopped by their table. “ Laura , my dear, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
    Laura glanced up and smiled. “Oh, Erick, you silly man, you know my daughter. Jan, you went to school with Erick Andrews the year we lived here, remember? About fifth grade maybe? Now he’s all grown up and was your Uncle Horace’s lawyer.”
    Jan eyed the man, trying for the life of her to find some resemblance to a classmate without success. What was her mother up to now? Why hadn’t she mentioned that Mr. Andrews was her former classmate before? Was she matchmaking again? Honestly, this was too much.
    Erick seemed to be having trouble remembering her, too. “Oh? Then I should remember you. Please, call me Erick. You’ve grown into a lovely lady.”
    “Thanks , uh, Erick . ”