I thought on her words. “You’re right, actually.”
“I know I am. Because I was her once.”
“I made her this list, you know.”
Ma turned to face me. “What list?”
I sighed. “The day after the party. I left the hotel and found myself on campus. I used one of the library computers to list out all sorts of avenues Rae had that she probably hadn’t thought about. I gave it to her hoping that, maybe, her knowing her options might help her out a bit.”
She smiled softly. “You’re a good man, Clint.”
“I just want her to not feel like this.”
“Because you love her.”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. Because I love her.”
“What were some of the suggestions?”
I grinned. “One of them was to travel.”
“Travel?”
“Yeah. You know, work from one of those freelance sights with her art or whatever and use the money to travel around. People do that nowadays as a full-time job all the time. I really think she could do it.”
“And you think that would make her happy?”
“I don’t know. But at least it would give her some time to figure out what might make her happy instead of being so damn miserable all the time.”
I looked over at Ma and found her smiling fondly.
“What?” I asked.
She sipped her coffee. “My rebellion against my parents was traveling after high school. Well, I mean, I was homeschooled. We all were. And then I was expected to settle down. Have kids. Live that very traditional, religious lifestyle. My middle finger to them was traveling on what little I could scrounge up after I turned eighteen.”
“How did that go?”
“Oh, it was fantastic. I had a couple of friends in the area where I lived that wanted to do the same thing. We’d always sneak out and get together and daydream about life beyond our yards. Beyond the fields and the trees and the chickens that woke us up well before sunrise. We even went so far as to reach out and get passports without our parents' knowledge. Then, once we had those in hand, we packed up our things and left.”
&
nbsp; “That’s… that’s insane, Ma.”
She giggled. “We pooled our money together and could barely afford one-way tickets to London.”
My eyebrows rose. “The three of you went to London?”
She nodded. “Oh, yeah. I think the ticket lady took pity on us, too. Which is why we could afford them. Either way, we got the tickets, got to London, and started hopping from country to country. Working odd jobs just to afford the train tickets and food. We lived out of hostels and experienced the world and all it had to offer.”
“I’m surprised you guys were safe.”
“Ah, I think we were lucky in that regard. If something felt off to us, we just kept going. There was no pressure to do anything or live up to any standard, so we didn’t hold ourselves to one. Just three girls trolloping through Europe trying to soak up as much as possible. We did that for a little over three months before it got old.”
“Did you have fun, at least?”
She sighed. “It’s one of the fondest memories I have in my life.”
“That’s amazing, Ma.”