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“No, we weren’t. I was alone trying to work and support two kids. The bills were piling up, a mortgage, and a house that needed repairs not to mention that my car was dying on me. College tuition was just around the corner and Frankie needs braces, another big-ticket item. I needed help, someone to turn to…someone to love.”
“I could have found a job.”
Lisa shook her head. “No, I’m the parent and this was my decision.”
“Fine, but why did that have to include me?”
Lisa dropped her head, fidgeting with her hands.
“My friends will graduate next year without me. I’ve lost Debbie and Grandma and I won’t lie, I’m uncomfortable with this new family, especially Makayla who you have forced upon me. You just don’t you get it? She doesn’t like me.”
Lisa’s head snapped up. “That’s funny, she said the same thing about you.”
Donja rolled her eyes. “What?”
“She said she’s uncomfortable around you because she thinks you don’t like her, the way she dresses and all.”
“Come on Mom, that’s so lame. She doesn’t like goth!”
“And you don’t like glam, but can’t the two of you meet in the middle?”
“Well…”
“Please.”
Donja bit at her lip, debating. Finally, she conceded with a huff. “Looks like I don’t have much choice.”
Lisa hugged her without warning, stroking her hair. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you too,” Donja whispered holding back a, but let me out of this hell she so wanted to add, but didn’t.
Lisa pulled back and brushed a lock from Donja’s cheek. “Grab your backpack and let’s go check out the village.”
“Village? Oh Jesus, don’t tell me there’s no city.”
Lisa rocked with a boisterous laugh which caught Donja off guard. “It’s small, I won’t lie, but just across the International Bridge the sister city on the Canadian side is huge, about eighty thousand and its only minutes away.”
“There are two Sault Ste. Marie’s?” she queried, remembering that Debbie asked the same question.
“Yeah, one in Michigan and one in Canada, and like Carson said, everyone here calls them the Soo.” Lisa pulled the Suburban keys from her purse. “You ready?”
~~~
Donja was not entirely disappointed with the quaint little city called the Soo. As they explored Lisa gave her quite the history lesson. The region was occupied by Native Americans over a thousand years ago. In the 1600’s, a French trading center was established on the shores of the St. Mary’s River, which flows from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The settlement, called Sault Saint Marie which means the ‘Rapids of Saint Mary’ in French, was built on an island and within no time, it flourished. Today, shipping vessels in the Great Lakes system bypass the dangerous rapids by means of the American Soo Locks, which Lisa explained, are the world’s busiest. Donja listened, interested despite herself. The fact that ships, up to a thousand feet long and over one hundred feet wide pass through the locks daily was utterly mindboggling. “I really want to see that,” she said with her first bit of enthusiasm since she left St. Joe. “I can’t image how they lower and raise ships, it sounds impossible.”
“It works. Water in, the ships rise, water out, they drop and resume their passage. I’ll get Carson to bring us all down for a tour once we’re settled in. Frankie will be fascinated.”
“That’s for sure,” Donja said.
In the bustling downtown Michigan Soo, Donja discovered enchanting shops of every kind, and more importantly, luxuries she thought she had lost moving as far north as one can without being Canadian. She surveyed the street vendors and sidewalk cafés crowded with patrons from all walks of life. “Looks like a melting pot of people.”
“It is,” Lisa said, navigating traffic, “and there are lots of Chippewa.”
“I see that,” Donja said eyeing two young, handsome guys, obviously of Indian descent exiting a sidewalk café.
“This was once their domain and though the French settlers named it the Soo, the Ojibwe,” Lisa said with a cursory glance, “which means Chippewa…”
“Say that again,” Donja interrupted with brows weaved tightly.