“I know, Mom,” Lauren said. “I have such guilt about adding any more financial burden to your life. I know that Northwestern is expensive. I know that you have a lot of debt. I know that you need your job to make ends meet. And I promise I will help you with my student loans.”
Lauren stopped and took a deep breath. “But what happens if I hate my career so much I can’t even hold a job? Isn’t that worse than trying to be a painter? Then what? I can always get a ‘real’ job, can’t I? I think there are still going to be people interested in hiring a Northwestern grad with a business and art background.”
Arden smiled. She studied her daughter in the garden: She was as beautiful and fresh as these flowers. She was still so tender, so young. Arden thought of how much she loved to write.
Arden removed her glasses with her free hand and shook her head.
“I only want for you to be happy, and I’m having the opposite effect in your life.”
Lauren squeezed her mother’s hand tightly.
“I know you have worried about Grandma’s ‘unruly’ influence on my decisions in life and I know that you have lived much of your life in Grandma’s shadow, but I’ve lived in your shadow, too,” Lauren said, the wind catching her blond hair and blowing it around her head. “What if we started over, right here, right now? Let’s believe what that little girl told Grandma a long time ago: We can be anything we dream of being.”
Arden leaned in and hugged her daughter.
“Deal.”
“That means you have to uphold your end,” Lauren said, pulling free and wagging a finger at her mom. “That means you need to dream again, too.”
“Double deal.”
Mother and daughter stood and strolled around the park, hand in hand.
“I think I’m going to help Grandma for the rest of her day, if you don’t mind,” Lauren said. “I had so much fun earlier. Wanna come?”
“You go on ahead. She’d love that,” Arden said, as they exited the park and stopped in the street across from Dolly’s, where a crowd had already gathered for Lolly’s next show. “I think I’m going to stroll over to Third Coast Books. I haven’t been there in ages.”
Lauren zipped across the street, giving a backward wave, just beating a pair of neon-colored scooters that the fudgies loved to zip around town on. The riders gave a loud toot to Lauren as she passed.
Arden stood motionless in the street, forcing fudgies and Segway riders to part around her like salmon swimming upstream, and watched Lauren surprise Lolly with a hug and then take one of her paddles to stir a copper urn.
Arden took off jogging down Main, taking to the street to avoid all the vacationers. She was out of breath when she reached Third Coast Books and had to remove her glasses to wipe the perspiration off the lenses. Arden stopped and studied the giant windows, filled with exquisitely artful book displays and event posters, fronting the old bookstore.
Third Coast’s old wooden floors creaked under Arden’s feet as she entered. She went to the back, ordered a latte, and wandered the store’s cramped aisles sipping and scanning. Her mother had bought countless books for Arden here. Between Third Coast and the local library, Arden had traveled the world without leaving Scoops, progressing from Nancy Drew to Judy Blume, from Michener to Hemingway.
Arden meandered into “classics,” took a seat on the floor, and placed her latte between her legs. She began to pull some of her favorite authors from the shelves, reminding herself of how much reading and writing meant to her.
Arden was so engrossed that she didn’t hear the footsteps behind her. She was so enraptured that she jumped when Jake’s rumbling voice began to read:
ALICE:
But I don’t want to go among mad people.
THE CHESHIRE CAT:
Oh, you can’t help that. We’re all mad here.
Arden looked up, and Jake laughed, slowly folding his big body, like an accordion, and taking a seat next to her on the floor. “Great book. Even better advice.”
Jake cocked his head at Arden, lifting his big, black brows, and let his dark eyes search her soul.
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Jake asked, nodding around the store. “And not just here, but here … in Scoops … right?”
Arden’s heart raced.
“You’ve gone mad,” he said, “but not in a good way.”
“Yes,” she said softly, returning the book in her hands to the shelf and taking a sip of her coffee. “My daughter and I came to help my mother, but I think she’s helping us even more. We are starting to find our passion for life again here.”
“Have you?”
“I don’t have an ending to my story yet.”
A bell on the door of the bookstore jingled, and Arden smiled.
“The sound of my mother’s charm bracelet is everywhere,” she said. “Now that—that—used to drive me mad.”
“Maybe you’re just ready to listen now.” Jake’s face broke into a smile as big and white as a Scoops blizzard. “You’re not quite the cynic you want people to believe you are, huh?”
Jake laughed, suddenly placing a hand on Arden’s leg. “Would you like to go out with me?” he asked.
His hand felt warm and natural on Arden’s leg.
“Okay,” she said, surprising herself.