Mona listened carefully, like she thought she might be learning some deep, dark secret. She didn’t, but even still, she let out a delighted snicker and nodded. “Oh, honey, I hear you. I run almost every last inch of this show, but sometimes I feel like the producers have got me on the world’s smallest leash, like I’m some kinda yip-dog. [i]Business,[/i]” she made a disgusted sound and waved her hand dismissively. 

Her eyes softened somewhat, and she brought her own voice a bit lower, too. “Oh, and just so you know, we won’t be bringing up any of that uh…well, that whole situation. ‘Course, you have my deepest condolences, I just don’t want you to worry about our talk turning into the tragedy hour. Like I said, we have fun, here.”

“I usually like to keep things open-ended, but when I was your age I [i]hated[/i] being thrown into something blind. You know, when lil’ Deelie came through here, I let her pick almost all the things we talked about ahead of time.” Mona sat back, a wistful smile on her face. “She was such a sweetheart, too. Would love to catch up with her again. But anyway—figured you might feel the same way, so, anything in particular you want to talk about? Anything you wanna avoid? Don’t let the wrinkles fool you, I’m a nimble thing, I can adapt.”

Someone off-set held up their hand, fingers splayed. Mona gave a thumbs-up back. “Dinner’s about five minutes out. Bessy really talked this guy up, said you [i]love[/i] this salmon. I don’t eat a lot of Tohoken food but that smell is [i]divine[/i].”