That evening, back in their room, Lu tried to reason with Zach. “I’m not saying it doesn’t appeal to me,” she protested. “But, with all we’ve been spending—the funeral, this trip—we need to think about it.”
“I don’t think we need to think about it, woman,” Zach responded. “I already did. Everything we been puttin’ out here we can count as part of your father’s final expenses and we’ll get it back when you sell the land.”
“It’s a lot of money we’ve spent!” Lu protested.
“I know, I know, but you holdin’ them purse strings so tight is gonna choke this here man,” he said. “We’ll get the money back. And if we don’t, then the hell with it. But there ain’t nothin’ you can do here that you can’t do at home. So I vote we take a couple of days, sit back, relax, and just be a family! And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”
Lu reluctantly agreed and telephoned Miss Pearl. She apologized profusely for not being able to deliver the check in person. Although Miss Pearl was clearly disappointed that they wouldn’t get to see each other again before Lu left for home, she repeated her assurances to Lu.
“Oh, honey, that’s fine,” she said. “Don’t you go worryin’ about me. I know you got a long way to go to get back home. You go on ahead now. Maybe ya’ll will come back down again, you know, about your daddy’s business? We can visit then. But, now if you need anything, anything at all, you best call me, hear?”
Zach and William drove to UPS the next morning and were back by the time Susan and Lu were packed and ready.
As Zach drove up the road the few short miles to Palm Coast, the landscape took on great changes. The roadside was planted with jelly palms, azaleas, and fan palmettos crowded around the stately oaks. “What happened here?” Lu asked. “This is beautiful! Palm Coast was nothing like this when I left. When I was growing up this place didn’t even exist. I can’t believe we only traveled a handful of miles and it’s like we’re back in the real world! This was a good idea, honey.” She leaned over and gave Zach a peck on the cheek.
“Hey,” William exclaimed. “That sign said Flagler Beach. Mom, you never said you grew up close to the beach.”
“Well, we didn’t, really,” she explained. “As little kids none of us ever got to go any farther than a trip to town or a Sunday picnic at Haw Creek. Most of the folks we knew didn’t have any money to go anywhere. Besides, a lot of them didn’t even have cars, just farm trucks. And blacks weren’t really welcomed with open arms at the beach.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw a puzzled look cross Susan’s face.
“See how easy you have it?” she chided. “When I was a teenager, the most entertainment we had was swimming in the lake, and maybe hanging out at somebody’s house for a barbeque or something. That was pretty much it. Even in high school, there just wasn’t anything to do for entertainment. I mean, a lot of the white kids could use their parents’ cars, or even had their own cars. They would go off joyriding or to the beach, but we didn’t have those luxuries.”