WHEN YOU GET TO ASHEVILLE

    ❝OKAY. i may… actually be a bit lost.❞

@seennew / / modern call.

❂ seennew ! 

           ❝ dont'cha you worry ‘bout a thing,                sweetheart. you should go out                on a date with billy tonight ! it’s                no TROUBLE. ❞

                  ❝ margo, i may be jumping to                      conclusions… but, considering                      that i’ve been through it once,                      i think i know the SIGNS. ❞

alice usually isn’t one to be coy, but to say it out loud… it would make it all too REAL.

        could she be a GRANDMA ? 

                  ❝ i don’t want to scare ‘ya, darlin’,                      but i think it’s ‘bout time you see                      a doctor, 'cause what you have…                      it’s not going away. ❞

                          if Alice is aiming to NOT alarm Margo, she’s completely missing the mark. while cheeks may have previously been coloured bright crimson, they are suddenly drained of any hue, pale as stomach drops and fingers fidget nervously. 

she hadn’t been pregnant in twenty-four years… not since billy. still, even all those years later, she knew the signs…

          she still REMEMBERED.

plus, alice had always had a good intuition. 

                  ❝ margo… when was your last, er,                      TIME-OF-THE-MONTH ? ❞

   ❛    —— ah . . . um, I dunno EXACTLY, but . . .   ❜

                          she’s FLUSTERED now, cheeks tinging red as demeanour adopts a certain level of sheepishness. several paces behind having even an inkling of an idea what train of thought her mother - in - law might be on, she’s STUCK mulling over the relevance of such a private inquiry.