Page 32 of After Anna

“Bread pudding!”

“Carbs, coming right up!” Maggie loved bread pudding, too. She was going off her diet, but it was a special occasion.It’s a girl!she thought, but didn’t say.

“Want to watch a movie? We can get a free one.” Anna picked up the remote, turned on the TV atop the dresser, and flipped through the choices. “It’s not a school night, and anyway, I’m out of school.”

“Sure.” Maggie pressed a button on the phone for room service. “I’ll look into getting you registered at Lower Merion on Monday. I don’t want you to lose too much time.”

“I’ll be the new girl.” Anna frowned, worried.

“You’ll do fine.” Maggie told room service the order, then hung up. “My mother always said, ‘When one door closes, another one opens.’”

“My grandmother said that?” Anna blinked, with a smile.

“Also ‘don’t sing at the table’ and ‘don’t put so much on your fork.’” Maggie hadn’t thought of that in ages. Having Anna was summoning those memories, and Maggie felt the spirit of her mother with her, sharing her happiness.

“What was her name?”

“Cecilia Theresa Macari Ippoliti. Sounds like an entrée right?”

Anna laughed. “Can I see pictures of her when we get home?”

Home. “Sure.” Maggie felt her heart swell. “Now find us a movie, and we’ll start our slumber party.”

“How about this one?” Anna highlightedTop Gunon the screen. “I always wanted to see this.”

“If you haven’t seenTop Gun, your education is incomplete.”

“Ha! Suck it, Congreve!” Anna clicked for the movie.

“Let’s flop around until they feed us.” Maggie kicked off her shoes and plopped into the center of her bed.

“Here we go.” Anna sat on her bed, and the movie credits started, playing thethumpa-thumpatheme music.

“Turn it up, girl! You need the full effect.”

“For real?” Anna glanced back, shyly.

“Yes, crank that thing!”

“Ha!” Anna did, moderately, then lay back in her pillows and pointed at the dotted-Swiss canopy. “Those dots are like stars in a white sky. Or snow in a storm.”

Maggie looked up, thinking Anna was right. “That’s poetic. Do you like poetry?”

“Yes. Do you?”

“Yes, but I don’t always understand it.”

“Me neither, but I write it anyway. I tried to get onThe Zephyr, that’s the poetry magazine at Congreve, but I didn’t make it. I showed some of my poems to Ellen.”

“I’d love to see them, someday.”

“Okay, oh, we’re missing the movie.” Anna shifted up in bed, watching the TV, and Maggie looked over at the screen, an aerial battle between fighter jets. Suddenly she remembered thatTop Gunwas a movie about a pilot and one of the pilots died. She kicked herself, wondering how Anna would react to the movie, given Florian’s death.

“Anna, maybe we should watch a love story or something.”

“No, this is so cool,” Anna shot back, riveted to the screen. “Who are the bad guys they’re shooting at?”

“It’s about a jet-fighter school. They’re exercises.” Maggie shifted up in the pillows, worrying. Anna was biting her nails, engrossed by the aerial battle in which a pilot named Cougar had a panic attack.