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Thursday afternoon, Sidney Hartwell twisted lazily back and forth in the chair at the front desk of her mom’s salon and promptly winced as a ray of sunshine streamed through the front windows and tried to burn her retinas.

“Geez,” she said, putting her hand up to shield herself and rising to her feet. She moved to the windows and lowered the shades until the sunshine was covered and the desk was no longer in the hot July sun.

“Got to ya, honey?” her mom called loudly from the other side of the salon, her voice barely audible over the hum of the hair dryers and chatter of the two other stylists and their clients.

“Yeah,” she said.

The front door swung open and Sidney quickly moved back to the desk and plastered a smile on her face to greet them.

“Hi, welcome to The Style Loft, how can I help you?”

“Hello, I’m Mildred and I’ve got a three p.m. appointment with Linda.”

Sidney looked at the calendar and saw the appointment. “Have a seat, let me check with my mom and see where she’d like you to get settled.”

She hurried back to where her mom was washing a current client’s hair.

“Get Mildred set up on four and I’ll be over as soon as I finish washing Daisy’s hair.”

Sidney nodded, called Mildred over, and got her set up including a bottle of water, then returned to the reception desk. She moved the appointment book to the side to reveal her sketchbook, where she’d been drawing an elephant. On her phone she had pictures of an elephant, but what she really wanted to do was see one in real life and sketch it right there.

Not that there were any elephants in Riverbrook, though it had plenty of trees to sketch thanks to being near the Pine Barrens, which were a famous part of New Jersey. But the area was otherwise fairly devoid of any sort of exotic wildlife outside of the usual seen in the woods.

Art was Sidney’s passion and her escape. Since she was a kid and given her first drawing set by her parents for Christmas, she’d dreamed of becoming a professional artist. She’d filled sketchbooks with drawings of animals that she’d never had a chance to see in real life. In her bedroom upstairs, above the salon, she had a shelf full of filled sketchbooks of wild animals, from lounging leopards with soft spots and sleek muscles to soaring eagles amidst fluffy clouds.

Life, however, had other plans.

When her father passed away when she was a teenager, her hopes of going to art school had gone up in smoke. Her part-time job at the salon for art supply money had become a full-time job that her mom insisted was more important than anything. More important than art school or finding a job in the art field that would help Sidney explore her craft.

Instead of spending her days with her pencil and sketchbook, she was mostly trapped at the front desk, checking in clients and managing appointments, ordering supplies, and helping as her mother and the other stylists needed.

Trapped was definitely a good word for how she felt: a prisoner to the obligations of a family-owned business. Her parents had run the salon together and Sidney had been simply a part-timer, but when her dad died, Sidney had felt pressured to fill in the gaps. Her mom had promised to hire help so Sidney could focus on her art, but that day had never come. Now, six years later, Sidney felt like her life was passing her by. She’d taken free drawing courses from the library and some online art classes from the local community college, and she knew she was talented enough to make a career of it if she could only work on it more.

If only she wasn’t proverbially chained to the front desk.

“Oh, what’s that?” Delia, one of the stylists, asked as she peered over Sidney’s shoulder. Sidney gave Delia an arched brow, and Delia grinned. “I know it’s an elephant.”

“Good, for a second there I was wondering if my drawing sucked.”

“Heck no, you’re amazing.”

“Aw, thanks.”

“It’s cute,” she said with an approving smile. “Hey, if I gave you a picture of Clyde, could you draw him for me? Something I can hang up? I’d pay you for it.”

Sidney smiled. “I’d love to do that. I have an online store on a craft site, and for an eight-by-ten pencil drawing, I charge thirty dollars. For you, it’ll be twenty.”

“Perfect. I’ll text you some pics of him.”

Clyde was Delia’s great dane who had no idea he was a very large dog and still considered himself a puppy who could sit on anyone’s lap.

She checked out Delia’s client and made an appointment for her next visit, then greeted the next client and took her to Delia’s station.

She sat back heavily in the desk chair and stared out the window for a few moments. Her phone buzzed, drawing her from her thoughts of freedom and fresh air that wasn’t tainted with hair spray. She saw that Delia had sent her pictures of Clyde by text.

Opening her phone to look at the pictures, she noticed she had a new email.

Opening the app, her eyes widened as she saw the subject line of the message: Enjoy a complimentary VIP Safari Tour at Amazing Adventures Safari Park .

It had to be a joke or spam.

Right?

She opened the email, wondering if she was about to get her account hacked, and realized it was legit. As part of a summer promotion, the safari park was sending out coupons for free VIP tours as well as a free parking pass and a voucher for a burger of the day combo.

She’d never been to the safari park. Because they owned their own business, her family hadn’t done much in the way of vacations over the years, just the occasional beach day when the salon was closed or visiting family over the holidays.

Sidney’s heart raced.

This could be her chance to see exotic animals up close and sketch them in person!

She opened the web browser and looked up the park. Not only did they have the safari tour with elephants, bears, lions, wolves, and a whole paddock of non-predator animals like deer and a grumpy moose named Tank, but there was also a petting zoo and a bird sanctuary with daily shows.

This had to be fate or some kind of sign from the universe that her art was going to go somewhere someday.

She leaned back in her chair and watched her mom talk animatedly to Mildred while she cut her hair. Her mom would not be thrilled that Sidney would want to take time off for a safari tour, but wasn’t it about time that Sidney put herself first for a change?

Returning to the website, she saw there was a place to enter in a code to redeem an email coupon or voucher to claim a spot during the tour times.

After entering the code, she looked through the available times and saw the VIP tours were only on Fridays and Saturdays, when the salon was the busiest.

With tomorrow being Friday, she knew it was too much to ask to be gone for half the day, but Saturday? That was doable. And she deserved some time away from the desk and a chance to see wild animals up close.

Selecting the tour at noon, Sidney entered in her information and hovered the mouse over the reserve now button.

What was the old saying? It was easier to ask forgiveness than permission?

Wasn’t she also a whole adult who could do things like take a day off?

Taking a deep breath, she clicked the button to reserve her spot for Saturday.

Now she just had to find the right time to tell her mom.

“What? I need you! Saturday is our busiest day!” her mom said after dinner as Sidney was clearing the dishes.

“I’ll help set up in the morning and deal with the clients as they come in, but I’m leaving at eleven. On the dot.”

“Why do you have to do this? Why not Sunday?”

“Because.” She had a whole lot to say, actually, about how it was reasonable to want to take time off and not always be at the salon. Hair styling was her mom’s passion, not Sidney’s. No matter the suggestions and encouragement she’d gotten to go into it, Sidney had always only wanted to do art.

“Because?” her mom prompted with an annoyed tone.

Her heart sank a bit at her mom’s harsh tone, but she’d been hyping herself up all afternoon to have this confrontation. “This is important to me, Mom. I want to go, but more than that, I never ask for time off. I’ve been working at the salon since Dad died and you’ve never hired anyone to help out at the front desk so I could do my own thing.”

“The salon is our thing.”

“It’s yours, not mine. Art is my thing. I know you don’t get it.”

Her mom waved a dismissive hand. “No, I don’t get it at all. You’re talking about doodling when I’m talking about our business. It keeps the roof over our heads and the lights on, dang it. Besides, I don’t have anyone to cover on such short notice.”

Ever since she’d clicked the button for the reservation, Sidney had felt like she needed to go to the safari park. More than her desire to sketch animals up close, she could feel like this was a decision that was going to change things for her in some way. She just had an inkling , as her grandma used to say, that something cool was just around the corner.

Straightening her shoulders, Sidney ignored the guilt that surged inside her. She knew her mom depended on her, but this was something she not only wanted to do, but felt deep in her bones that she needed to do it. “I’ve made up my mind,” she said with as firm a voice as she could muster. “I’ll be leaving at eleven and I’ll be gone for the rest of the day.”

“Oh fine, you win. We’ll manage.”

Relief flooded through her. “Thanks, Mom.”

She felt a mix of emotions as she finished carrying the dishes to the sink and turned on the hot water. She’d had a small victory, but she still felt guilty. She didn’t like disappointing her mom even though she was one hundred percent certain that the salon would be perfectly fine without someone sitting at the front desk for one afternoon.

She just simply didn’t want to keep putting herself on hold like she’d been doing for so many years. It was well past the time when Sidney needed to put herself first for a change, and going to the safari park to sketch animals was a very small step toward a life that she wanted very badly for herself. One that wasn’t stuck behind the front desk and wishing things were different, but making things different.

Hope flickered in her chest for a moment.

Was this what it felt like to finally have a chance to do something for herself? To follow her heart and chase her dreams?

It was pretty damn awesome.

As the suds filled the sink and the steam from the hot water made her nose itch, Sidney smiled to herself. She was going to take a day off and go to the safari park and see some wild animals up close. She’d take her new sketchbook and her leather roll of freshly sharpened pencils, and she’d make the most of her time there.

She couldn’t wait.