Page 119 of Places We've Never Been

CHAPTER 29

“You will get to look at that every day if you want to,” Mom said as we stood across the street from the lit-up Space Needle, our necks craning to see all the way to the top. After driving half the day, we’d arrived to the RV park late, but Mom wanted to be the first one to see the Space Needle with me, so the two of us took an Uber to Broad Street.

“Will you hang out around here for a little bit?” she’d asked the Uber driver. “We won’t be long.”

“If I don’t get another call, I’ll stay parked here.”

“Thanks,” Mom had said.

Now we stood staring at the iconic landmark. A Lime scooter lay on its side next to a tree. Mom noticed it as well. “I think there’s an app that lets you borrow those and zip around town.”

“Zip around town?” I said.

“Scoot around town? If you want to do that, we should probably buy you a helmet. You shouldn’t ride one without a helmet.”

“Are you going to Mom me even when I’m at college?”

“I’m never going to stop Momming you.”

My gaze traveled to the Museum of Pop Culture next to the Space Needle. It had wavy walls. “I might not get in,” I said, admitting that out loud for the first time. “Maybe I won’t be coming here at all.”

“Come on, positive thoughts.”

I nodded and my eyes were back on the needle. “It would be pretty cool to see this every day.”

“It will be.” She hooked her arm in mine. “Should we call it a night? We’ll see more stuff this weekend; then you’ll have lots of things to talk to Dean Collins about at your interview. You’ll impress her with all your knowledge of the city.”

“She’ll be so impressed that I’m a tourist,” I said sarcastically.

“People love to hear how much you love their city. Trustme.”

We headed back toward the car still idling close by. “Long distance is hard, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Are you worried about getting homesick?”

“A little.” Even though we were standing at my potential future home, a year felt like forever away. A week was much closer. That’s what I was more worried about.

“Long distance is hard. But you can come home for all the major holidays. And summer of course.”

“Can we do another trip like this next summer?” I asked.

“Yes! We should. And we need to talk Dad into coming next time.”

“Yes…Dad.” That was a really good sign. Maybe I needed to take that suspicion off the table, the one that she and my dad were struggling. “And the Huttons again,” I said.

“The…” Her excitement immediately faded. “Oh, we’ll have to see. Everyone’s schedules are hard to line up. I mean, this trip was months and months in the making.”

“Mom, no, it—”

She patted my hand and opened the car door. “Not right now, honey.”

“When?” I asked.

“Soon.”

That meant there really was something to tell. I could no longer live in the idea that I was just imagining it. I nodded and climbed into the car.

***