Page 2

Chapter Two

Alan awoke when a flight attendant reminded passengers to place seats in their upright position and prepare for landing. He yawned before complying, then turned to me, “What did I miss?”

“A bag of mini-pretzels and a beverage of your choice.”

He grinned. “I’m surprised I slept through the meal service. Are we really almost home?”

“We are, and the pilot made good time.” Clare blocked my view of our proximity to the ground, yet her silhouette reminded me to tell Alan we might have a guest in the car for our drive to Aspen Notch. “Have you met Clare Dolan?” I asked him.

Hearing her name, she turned from the window to face him. My husband gave a pleasant smile as he said, “Nice to meet you. I’m Alan Jaworski.”

“Clare happens to be going to Aspen Notch and asked if she might hop a ride with us instead of renting a car.”

“No problem,” Alan said. “Are you visiting family? ”

“Yes, my sister, Elizabeth Sterling. She lives on Church Street.”

“As do we,” Alan replied. “The name sounds familiar, though I can’t put a face on her.”

“Alan used to be the police chief in Aspen Notch,” I explained. “He knows just about everyone in town.”

A slight bump, then a roar of the engines signaled our touchdown on the tarmac. I squeezed Alan’s hand, feeling relieved to be on firm ground.

Once the plane came to a complete stop, Alan reached to the overhead bins and retrieved our carry-on bags, including the one Clare had asked me to watch earlier. We waited our turn to disembark, then followed the line of passengers to the terminal.

“Alan and I checked our suitcases,” I told Clare after texting Jessica that our plane had arrived, “so we need to go to baggage claim.”

“Same here,” she replied, “although I’d like to stop at the ladies’ room, if you don’t mind.”

“Me, too,” I agreed.

Afterwards, I spotted Jessica and Sean at the bottom of the escalator and waved to them. “That’s my granddaughter and great-grandson,” I explained to Clare. She smiled and waved, too.

“Welcome home!” they called. I didn’t care if we caused a scene as we hugged and kissed.

“Did you bring me a present?” Sean asked.

“That wasn’t polite,” Jess scolded. “You can help find their bags on the carousel since your father’s waiting in the car for us.”

He and Alan scooted ahead while I introduced Clare to my granddaughter. I had no idea how we’d all fit into Alan’s SUV that Ryan used for our pickup, but I knew we could manage.

Luckily, Clare was slender and petite.

^^^

We probably looked like the Keystone Cops when all six of us crammed into our seating positions after tossing our bags into the rear bay. Since ours was the only incoming flight at the time, not too many drivers honked for us to get moving. Still, we didn’t want to hold up traffic.

With Ryan already behind the steering wheel, Alan jumped into the front passenger seat. I introduced Clare to my grandson-in-law and explained that we’d drop her off at her sister’s home on Church Street.

“My purse is in the back,” she replied, “but I think it’s number 147.”

“That’s just down the street from us,” he noted. “It’s no problem at all.”

“You’ve saved me from having to find my way there, so I thank you. Do you happen to know my sister, Liz Sterling?”

“I can’t say that I do,” Ryan said. “Anyone else?”

We all shook our heads. “How long has she lived in Aspen Notch?” I asked.

“I guess about thirty years.”

“That’s a long time,” Sean commented. “We’ve only lived in Aspen Notch for like two years. Right, Dad?”

“Right, son.”

“Where did you live before?” Clare asked.

“My dad and I lived in Massachusetts with my first mother, but she died and now Jess is my new mother. We live in the house next to G-G and G-P, and I’m going to have a baby sister pretty soon.”

She smiled to hear his news. “You’re very lucky.”

He scrunched his nose. “Not really because girls are weird, but I’ll teach her cool stuff.”

Jessica, changing the subject, asked me what I thought about Japan. She’d wanted to join us on the trip, but didn’t want to miss Sean’s first week in second grade.

“It’s a beautiful country with fascinating traditions,” I replied. “Suki’s parents welcomed us to their home, then took us to sightseeing places in and around Tokyo. We were on the go for the entire trip.”

“What’s a sightseeing place?” Sean asked.

Alan turned from the front seat to reply. “It’s something famous to see, like the Empire State Building in New York City.”

Sean shrugged. “I never saw that. Do they have an empire building in Japan?”

“Not exactly, but sort of,” Alan replied. “We went to the Bunkyo Civic Center in Tokyo—that’s the capital of Japan—where we took an elevator to the observation deck and had a pretty good view of Mount Fuji.”

“You mean like a mountain to go skiing?”

“Yes, although I don’t know if anyone skis on it. Maybe they do since it has snow on the top. We got you a t-shirt with a picture of Mount Fuji and, perhaps, you can wear it for show-and-tell.”

“Second graders don’t do show-and-tell,” Sean huffed. “That’s for little kids.”

“Sorry,” Alan replied, hiding his smile. “I didn’t know.”

With Sean’s sudden silence, I gave a brief overview of the traditional wedding ceremony that had captivated me. “ It was Shinto style, held at a beautiful shrine, and Suki looked gorgeous in her elaborate kimono.”

Sean found his voice again. “Is that a dress?”

“Yes, though you and I would probably consider it a robe,” I said. “It’s what Japanese people used to wear everyday in Japan. Nowadays, a kimono is worn for special occasions.”

“You saw Suki’s kimono in the photos Mimi sent,” Jessica remarked.

“Oh, I didn’t know what you meant.”

“We bought one for everyone in the family as a souvenir,” I said. “Of course, we didn’t splurge for the ones made of silk. Those are pretty expensive.”

Sean frowned. “I’m not wearing a dress. Only girls wear dresses.”

“Men in Scotland wear kilts,” Ryan stated. “They’re skirts, and the colors in the plaid fabric indicated how people from different clans knew their kinsmen.”

“That’s true,” Jess agreed. “We should ask Irene’s husband, Ian, if he has a kilt he could show Sean. That would be cool.”

“Ah,” Clare sighed. “I love pictures of rugged Scotsmen in kilts. They’re quite handsome, don’t you think?”

Those of us in the back seat stared at her. I even caught Ryan’s wide eyes from the rear-view mirror.

Clare didn’t seem to notice the attention she’d garnered. She sighed aloud before saying, “I’ve watched every episode of Outlander.”

That brought an end to my description of Michael and Suzi’s wedding because Jess and Clare began comparing the novel and the film version. Sean, in the middle, leaned forward to talk to his dad and Alan, and I watched the blur of the countryside until we reached our exit off the interstate.

Thinking Clare might want an introduction to our town, I pointed out some of the shopping centers and convenience stores leading to Main Street. Sean interrupted to tell her about the rest area where a tree fell on their camper.

“Oh, my!” she exclaimed. “Did you get hurt?”

“No, but my dad had to go to the hospital. Sue and Alan and Sophie took care of me.”

“Who’s Sophie?” she asked.

“That’s our dog, and you don’t have to be scared because she’s a good girl. I trained her that way.”

“I love dogs,” Clare replied with a pleasant smile. “Sadly, I might not meet her since you’re dropping me off at my sister’s home.”

“OK, but if you do see her, rub her belly. She likes that.”

“Good to know,” Clare said before watching the view from her window.

Ryan drove slowly through town, highlighting buildings of interest such as our bakery, library, pizza shop, police station, gift shop, and Dottie’s Café. At our corner of Main Street and Church Street, he explained that the log cabin was the original home of Abe Whitman, the town’s founder, and now served as my garden shop, Butterflies and Blooms.

“It all makes me feel as if I’m going back in time,” Clare noted. “Aspen Notch is such a quaint town.”

Ryan located 147 Church Street, not too far down the block and on the opposite side of the street from our homes. He pulled into the driveway, then helped carry her bags to the front porch. She rang the bell before turning to call her thanks and wave us off.

I could only hope she had the right house.