actually on the road,” Ruth marveled as they reached the summit of Snoqualmie Pass, crossing the Cascade Mountains. They were a little more than an hour outside Seattle, heading due east.
Ruth had the map supplied by AAA spread out on her lap and acted as navigator while Bethanne drove. Annie had claimed the backseat; she’d been suspiciously quiet since they’d left Seattle. Bethanne knew Vance had deeply hurt and disappointed her daughter. The fact that he’d decided to travel in Europe for a year—and hadn’t bothered to tell her—could only feel like a betrayal. Bethanne hoped that spending these weeks with her grandmother and with her would help. Annie was still young. In time she’d recognize that Vance’s leaving was the best thing that could have happened.
She remembered when she’d told her parents she wanted to marry Grant. Her family, especially her father, had urged Bethanne to complete her education first. With just one semester to go before she obtained her degree, he’d argued that it made sense to put off the wedding. Bethanne, however, had been unwilling to listen, unwilling to wait a day longer than necessary to be Grant’s wife. And she’d refused to be separated from him; the university was in the town of Pullman in eastern Washington, while he was working in Seattle. She’d finish school later—only she never had.
In retrospect, it had all worked out, but if she’d had her teaching degree who knows how different her life might have been. One thing was sure; with a career of her own, or at least the qualifications for one, she wouldn’t have felt so completely vulnerable when Grant asked for a divorce.
Annie’s situation was different to that extent, anyway. She’d graduate the following year with a business degree. She’d gotten practical experience working at Parties and that would serve her well.
Annie stirred in the backseat, sitting up and yawning. She removed the iPod earbuds and stretched her arms to the side, arching her back. “Where are we?”
“Just over the pass,” Bethanne told her.
“Already?”
“Have you been asleep?”
“I think I was,” Annie murmured sadly. “I haven’t had much sleep the past few nights.”
“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry.”
“Vance, Matt and Jessie got off okay,” she muttered with no degree of pleasure. “They ended up getting a cab. He sent me a text from the airport and said he’d keep in touch.”
Bethanne suspected Vance’s effort to communicate wouldn’t last long. If the tone of Annie’s voice was any indication, she’d figured that out, too. Vance would stay in touch for the first few weeks, and then all his good intentions and promises would fall by the wayside. Frankly, Bethanne was just as glad, although she’d never tell Annie that.
“Where are we spending the night?” Annie asked, leaning forward and thrusting her head between Bethanne and Ruth in the front seat.
“I have a reservation in Spokane,” Ruth answered.
“Spokane?” Annie repeated. “That’s only five hours from Seattle. Can’t we drive farther than that?”
Ruth looked over at Bethanne. “When I made these arrangements I intended to travel alone. I estimated that between four and six hours on the road would be my limit. I wanted to make it a leisurely trip.”
“We’ve been to Spokane at least a dozen times,” Annie complained. “I’ve seen everything there is to see.”
Bethanne had, as well. “This is your grandmother’s trip, Annie,” she reminded her daughter. “If Grandma Hamlin wants to spend the night in Spokane, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“Okay.” Annie slumped back and folded her arms. “Does the hotel have a swimming pool?”
“I don’t know.” Ruth flipped open her itinerary.
“Tell me the name of the hotel and I’ll look it up on my phone.”
“You can do that?” Ruth sounded impressed.
“As long as they have a website I can.”
Ruth gave Annie the hotel name, and Annie immediately started clicking away. Judging by her sigh, the hotel was pool-less.
“We’ll have lunch, and then check out the local attractions. There’s a mall close by, isn’t there, and a movie theater? No reason we have to stay in the room.” Bethanne offered what she hoped were helpful suggestions.
She assumed they’d reach Spokane a little after one. The truth was, Bethanne agreed with Annie. She was certainly willing to drive beyond Spokane. However, this was Ruth’s trip, as she’d pointed out, and she was reluctant to do anything that would diminish her mother-in-law’s enjoyment. Ruth had waited years for this opportunity, so Bethanne refused to cheat her out of even one second of her carefully planned adventure.
“I … I suppose we could go a bit farther,” Ruth murmured after a while. “I’m anxious to get to Florida.”
“Have you heard from anyone there?” Bethanne asked.
“Just Jane and Diane.”
“Wow, fifty years,” Annie said. “That’s a long time.”
“It is.” Ruth nodded slowly. “The funny thing is, it doesn’t seem that long ago—it really doesn’t.”
“How many years has it been for you, Mom?”
“Let me see. I graduated in …” Bethanne quickly calculated the years, astonished that it’d been twenty-nine years since she’d left high school. “Twenty-nine years,” she whispered, hardly able to believe it.
“Did you ever go to your reunions?”
Annie certainly seemed to be in an inquisitive mood. “No. Your father—” Bethanne paused, about to lay the blame at Grant’s feet. While it was true that Grant hadn’t been enthusiastic about attending her high school functions—or, for that matter, his own—she’d consented. She could’ve gone by herself, and hadn’t. It wasn’t like Eugene, Oregon, was all that far from Seattle. “No, I never did,” she said.
Her father, an English professor now retired, had taught at the University of Oregon. Her mother had died a couple of years ago. Bethanne was proud of the way her father coped with being a widower. Despite his grief he hadn’t given up on life; in fact, he was currently in England with a group of students on a Shakespearean tour.
They spoke and emailed regularly, and she’d recently learned that he was dating. Her father had a more active social life than she did, which actually made her smile.
“Wasn’t Dad born in Oregon?” Annie asked.
“Yes, in Pendleton,” Ruth confirmed. “Richard and I were newlyweds, and he was working on a big engineering project there. I don’t remember exactly what it was now. We moved around quite a bit the first few years we were married.”
“How far is Pendleton from here?”
“Oh, dear, I wouldn’t know.”
“I’d like
