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“Ah, here they are.” She held up our plane tickets and waved them in my direction as she smiled a half smile. “Okay, so we're going to play a little game, too. How does that sound?”

“What kind of game?”

“We're going to pretend that we're different people. What do you think of that?”

“Different people? But why?”

“Because it will be fun, Poppy. Don't you play pretend? You pretend you're a doctor, or a vet, or a teacher sometimes, don't you ?”

“Yeah, I used to, but I'm not a little kid anymore, Mom. I'm nine, and I like who I am.”

“Well, this is kind of the same thing as when you were little, only better. It's for older kids, just like you.” She passed me a ticket. “Today, you're going to pretend to be Anna Hilstein, and I'm going to be Donna Hilstein.”

My face scrunched up tight at the name. Anna? I didn't even look like an Anna. “But why, Mom? Why are we doing this?”

“Honey, we do the same things every single day. You get up and go to school. I get up and I don't do anything but stay in the house. I just want to do something exciting for once. Something different. Something for us.” She stopped walking and dropped down to look me in the eyes. “Can you do this for me? Can you play pretend for a little bit? Please? It would mean the world to me.”

I thought for a second and agreed. “Yeah, I can do that.”

My mother was right. She was always home because she was sick a lot. And when she did feel better, it didn't last long. Her bouts of feeling good lasted only a day or two. Long enough to bring my dad lunch at his office or maybe go for a nice walk. My mother was begging me with her eyes to go along with her plan. What harm was there in playing pretend? Besides, it could be fun to be someone else for a change. And I wanted to make her happy.

“Thank you, Honey. This means so much to me.” She kissed my forehead. “Alright,Anna,let's go catch our plane for a brand new adventure.”

The woman at the desk smiled and asked if we were checking any bags. We weren't, so, she checked our tickets. My mom passed her two little blue booklets with an overly bright smile.

“Have a nice flight,” the woman said without question.

She didn't ask me my name or look at me funny. Which was good because I wasn't sure how to be Anna yet. What did Anna like? What was her favorite color, her favorite food, her best memory? There was so much I still needed to come up with to play Anna Hilstein.

“Mom,” I said.

“Yeah?” she asked as she glanced at the terminal sign to see which way we needed to go.

“I don't like the name Anna. Can I pick a different name?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, but not yet. When we get to France, you can be whoever you want to be. For now, just stick with Anna.”

“France? We're going to France?”

“Oops, looks like I let the secret slip.”

“Will I get to see the Eiffel Tower?”

“You sure will. And if you do a really good job of playing pretend, I'll even take you to the restaurant all the way at the top.”

“Really?” The first spark of excitement flowed through my body like electricity flowed through a live wire.

“Really.” She cupped my head and scrunched her fingers in my hair.“Anna,”she said with a smile and a wink.

We boarded the plane. My mother wore big, obnoxious glasses that made her head look like a half sucked lolly pop. Her hair was stuck to her head from the sweat she couldn't stop seeping. She kept running her hands over her face and then wiping her fingers through her hair, pushing the sweat deep into the tangled mess.

I had never been on a plane before. Even though my father traveled for business a few times a month, he never took uswith him. He always seemed to be visiting incredible places like Spain, London, Mexico, or Japan. He'd fly around the world, hopping from one place to the next, but my mom and I always stayed home.

It was my turn to explore. My eyes were glued out the window. When we took off, it was still dark outside, but now the sun was coming up over the horizon, making the ocean glitter like it was full of dimes. I could see the waves of the ocean below us whenever the clouds thinned like chalk being washed away in the rain.

The fear I felt earlier was like a bug bite that stopped itching. It was there, but it was laying dormant, no longer a discomfort, just more of a memory being pushed away and replaced by something greater.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Paris,” the captain said over the intercom.