15

IN SEATTLE

I love fancy hotels. I love room service and towels that are always fluffy and beds that get made for you and chocolate candies on your pillow at night and indoor swimming pools. I just do. In fact, I was thinking just the other day that being in charge of a fancy hotel might be a very cool job.

We pulled up to the extremely fancy hotel where we stayed the last time we were in Seattle, and two guys in burgundy valet suits opened the doors of our car. The reception at the gallery wasn’t until six p.m., so we had time just to be.

“Can we order room service?” I asked my mom before the bellhop had even closed the room door.

“Yes,” Mom answered.

I bounced on the soft bed and yelled, “Yay!”

Mom and I pigged out on soup and sandwiches and salad and dessert and were watching her favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, on an old movie channel, when she nodded off.

I turned off the TV and stared out the window at the city below. Cars sped by and all kinds of people strolled along. A runner dashing across the street nearly got hit by a car, and the driver honked twice. A dog yanked its owner down the sidewalk, and four people on bicycles held up traffic while a blind man, wearing sunglasses, moved his long white cane with a red tip from side to side. At that moment, I decided that I prefer city life. And when I grow up, I’m going to live in a very big city where there are all people of all colors, maybe New York, not some humdrum small town. Maybe I’ll be bohemian. Yep, definitely bohemian.

By three thirty Mom was wide-awake and pulling on her tennis shoes. “Let’s go for a walk. We have plenty of time.”

First, we stopped in Neptune Music Company, where Mom bought an original Jimi Hendrix vinyl album. Then we searched the racks at a vintage dress store, where Mom bought a navy blue silk suit from the 1950s. She’s seriously into vintage clothes, and I have to admit it looked pretty good on her.

“Can we move to Seattle?” I asked. “I like it here. It’s so much fun and there are lots of different kinds of people.”

“Maybe we should,” she replied.

“Huh? Are you serious?”

“Yes. Moon Lake is so . . . isolated from the real world. If I can find a good job. Once Daisy graduates. It wouldn’t be fair to her right now.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But are you really serious?”

She gently squeezed my hand. “Yes, Violet, I am.”

At that point, I stopped looking around Seattle with visitor’s eyes, trying to see everything in a flash, soaking up all the sights and sounds, storing them in my memory. My eyes now saw the city like a person who might live there one day, a person with plenty of time.

We were browsing inside another store at toys and cards and posters and stuff when Mom’s cell phone sounded off the alarm tone. She grabbed my hand and together we speed-walked back to the hotel. Like a candle, time had melted away, the way it always seems to when you’re having fun.

Mom took a shower first.

“Your turn, V . . . and make it a quickie.” I put on the shower cap because my curls were looking extremely perfect and I didn’t want them to frizz up the way they do when there’s steam or fog around.

By the time I came out of the bathroom, Mom was dressed in the suit she’d just bought and she was wearing makeup, even lip gloss. “Wow! You look pretty,” I told her.

“Thank you,” she replied as she sniffed her clothes. “It kind of has that old-clothes smell. Maybe I shouldn’t wear it before I send it to the cleaners.”

I got close to her and took a long whiff. “I don’t smell anything.”

Mom squinted at me. “You swear?”

Just to be sure, I took another sniff. “I swear.”

“Okay, hurry and get dressed.”

We drove up to the museum at exactly 6:05. My insides felt squirmy like worms wiggling and my hands were sweaty. I got out of the car, straightened out my clothes, and fluffed up my hair. “How do I look?”

Mom smiled, even with her eyes, and answered, “Beautiful, V. You look beautiful.”

Beautiful? I don’t think anyone had ever called me beautiful before.

“My little girl is growing up,” Mom added.

“Do you think I’ll ever be breathtaking, like Daisy?”

“Absolutely.”

Suddenly, I felt amazing and spectacular, sparkly like a diamond.