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“I haven’t had pizza in years.”
“Exactly. Switch it up. Get out of your routine. Take a risk, Mom… That’s what I’m going to do.”
I reach into my purse for the itinerary I printed at my dad’s office. “I know I was just there, but I’ve decided I want to go back.” I hand the papers over to my mom.
She lowers her reading glasses and peers at the top sheet. “To Hawaii?”
I nod. “I fly out Friday, and I’ll be back Tuesday. It’s a quick trip. There’s a turtle ceremony I want to see.”
“But… why?”
“Alexis called it ‘soul searching.’ I’m thinking of it as just something I must do, for me. For my well-being. My growth, you know, as a person. Plus, I really love that sea turtle, the one I called Chester. I’d like to see him one last time before he leaves the lagoon.”
“He’s the one you took so many photographs of.”
I nod, thinking of Chester’s buggy eyes and nodding head. “Yeah.” I grin. “I want to be there to wish him well when he ventures out into the big blue ocean. And… I think it will be good for me to see the ceremony. I feel this… this shift, I guess, happening inside me. Like I’m on the brink of something new. I think I need to be on that island to really let it happen.”
“I don’t know what nonsense you’re talking about,” she says, lips pinched again.
Well, I tried, I think, as I survey her worried expression.
But then… I see it.
A spark in her eye.
It shimmers there, dancing like the flames in the hearth. “Risk, hm?” she says, her tone dreamy. “How about that? Haven’t considered taking a risk in a long time.”
“I think it can be healthy.”
“Or a good way to get hurt,” she says.
Hm. Now I know where I got that outlook from.
I reach for my purse. “Some people say dangerous usually means fun.”
“I have been wanting to try that new pizza place.” She giggles.
It’s the first laugh I’ve heard on her lips in so, so long.
She stands up. “I suppose that’s not exactly dangerous, but we all have to start somewhere.”
When I walk to the door, she joins me there. “Have fun, sweetie,” she says before kissing my cheek. “I’ll try to do the same here. It looks like my last baby bird is flying the nest. I’m sorry… I’m sorry if I kept you a little too long.”
She gets it.
Better than I did, even.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” I tell her, in all honesty. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. Now, go. Fly. Or, swim. Whatever it is that you want to do.” She gives me a quick smile and then shoos me out the door.
Snow’s once again falling. The flakes are wet and heavy. It takes me a few minutes to scrape my windshield.
When I settle into my car, I crank the heat and blow breath onto my frozen fingers. At least I won’t have to deal with the spring sleet that’s expected for this weekend.
In three days, I’ll be in Hawaii.
Chapter 26
