Page 4 of Doran

“Remember when you were little and had that Sesame Street play set? The one with Grover and the Furry Arms, I think it was called?”

I blinked. I did remember it. It was a fond but very misty sort of memory.

“I do. Grover was my favorite.”

“He sure was. You used to say you were going to own a hotel one day. And then when you were about eight, your grandpa and I took you to that small inn in Vermont for a week during summer vacation. Your mom and dad went to Greece for their anniversary, and we felt you also deserved a little trip.”

I smiled. I remembered that place. It had frilly curtains and ruffled bedspreads and had been in an old house that was a very short drive away from a beach. I’d wanted to live there forever.

“You told your grandpa that one day, when you owned a hotel, it would be just like that one.”

“That was a child’s dream, Grammie.”

“Maybe, but perhaps your finding a job at a hotel is the universe’s way of reminding you of that childhood dream.”

I laughed. “I clean rooms for Lucky 7, a discount motel chain. I’m not even a manager.”

“But what if your dream could come true?” She squeezed my hand. “Don’t answer me yet. Think about it. What if you were given the money to open a place? Maybe not a bed and breakfast, even, but a rooming house? Or something that’s a combo of both? Long and short term stays?”

“I’d ask what the catch was.”

“One little test in exchange for the funds and support and a clean start for you and the kids on a brand new world.”

My eyes widened. “Grammie! You’re talking about the mate test. I could get mate matched to an alien?”

“A sexy as sin alien who’s your destined mate, just like in a romance novel, only real. Oh, pish, don’t look at me like that. I’ve got eyes and know a good piece of eye candy when I see one. I’m seventy-one, not dead. Besides, the odds of getting matched is super low. Even lower if you don’t opt for the Mylos test too for some college money.”

“You two look like you’re plotting,” my cousin Mary said, sidling over with baby June on her hip. “Say happy birthday to Great Grammie, Junie.”

The baby hid her face in her shoulder.

“We were just talking about things I remembered from when she was little and stayed with Grandpa and I.”

“I see.” When she realized Grammie wasn’t going to elaborate, nor was she going to offer to take Junie, she wandered off.

“This is supposedly my party, but notice how everyone is mostly ignoring me?” She lowered her voice even lower. “This is why I’m moving in with Leigh Ann and Ruby. We’ve bought a mobile home in a retirement park down in Florida to Golden Girl it. Don’t tell anyone. I don’t want them to find out until I call them from down there with the news. I’m likely to live to be ninety, and I get around just fine. And there’s a shuttle bus for us to go shopping and to the local medical center. We fly out next Tuesday. Goodwill’s coming Monday to take my furniture and things I’m not taking. Ruby’s son is driving a Uhaul of the stuff we all are bringing. And we’re staying at the Ramada Inn by the airport Monday night.”

I understood then. She was wanting me to get out from all of this drama just as she was and hoping to see me do so before she left.

“You sure sound like you’ve all thought of everything. I’ll miss you, Grammie.”

“Oh, pish! There’s phone service and internet down there. I know how to use email and a cell phone, and so do you.”

“Mother, come to the dining room. We’ve got a buffet set up there, and as the birthday girl, you get to go first.”

Grammie got up, but not before giving me a meaningful look.

I stood up, rounding up my kids from where they were playing outside with their cousins.

Could I really revisit that old dream? I was a good cook and baked decent cakes, and if I used ready made crusts, my homemade pies were pretty good too. And I made a mean no bake cheesecake. Not that I got to do any of those things all that often. I preferred to use the food money for plenty of fruit and vegetables and such for the kids. Most nights we had salad or homemade soup before our main course and fresh or canned fruit in juice for dessert, in fact.

Food grown on a colony world would be extra fresh. And they’d have a lot more freedom to play outside. And I’d be working from home, so they’d see me more. But what if I did end up matched?

3

SARAH

Monday morning was hectic as usual. Weekend guests checked out early, and our proximity to the airport meant we had a lot of budget conscious travelers who had early flights to catch. I didn’t mind the business, to be honest. It meant I could get into an easy rhythm as most of the rooms needed doing. Usually I found myself humming a song or planning a free outing for the kids on my day off. Today, though, I was thinking about Grammie and what she’d told me. At first, I was imagining the look on my parents’ and aunt’s faces when they discovered she’d flown the coop to go live it up with her two best friends in a retirement community all the way down in Florida. That morphed into her cackling about it as she played pickleball with a distinguished looking older gent she met there. Then suddenly, while I was changing sheets in the next room, I wasn’t here at all. I was at that long ago Vermont inn, only I owned it, and it was on an alien planet, and I was readying the room for a new guest. Most startling of all, a Dragonii was vacuuming on the other side of the room. My husband, I realized, and that realization kicked me right out of that fantasy.