THE HOLIDAY SEASON flew by this year, and I’m not kidding. Damon came home for Christmas break, and by New Year’s Eve, Nana was mobile enough to do a whole crown roast for the family, with a little help from her friends. It was a perfect way to say good-bye to the year, just the six of us—even if Ali and Nana didn’t quite make it to midnight.
New Year’s Day started quietly too. I listened to a few chapters of Ha Jin’s A Free Life with Nana in her room, made brunch for the kids, and then asked Bree if she’d take a drive with me in the afternoon.
“A drive in the country would be perfect,” she said. “Good idea. I’m in.”
It was just below freezing out, but perfectly climate controlled inside the car. I put on some John Legend, pointed north, and watched the world sail by for an hour or so.
Bree didn’t even notice where we were headed until I got off 270 in Maryland.
“Oh, goody.”
“Oh, goody?”
“You heard me. Oh, goody. Goody, goody gumdrops. I love this place!”
Catoctin Mountain Park is something of a sentimental favorite for us. It was the first place Bree and I ever went away together, and we’d gone camping there a few times since, with the kids and just the two of us. It’s beautiful year round—and closed on New Year’s Day, as it turned out.
“No big deal, Alex,” Bree said. “It’s a beautiful drive here, anyway.”
I pulled over at the big stone gate outside the main entrance and turned off the car’s engine.
“Let’s go for our walk. What are they going to do, arrest us?”