I woke early out of habit, even though there would be no training that day, since Jody was still in Toronto. Slipping out of the bedroom quietly so I wouldn’t wake Emmy and Angela, I was surprised to find Mom and Tiffany in the kitchen.
“Morning, Lee,” Mom said, keeping her voice down. “I’m making breakfast- would you like some pancakes?”
Smiling, I said, “I would love some pancakes. Thanks!”
“Is Emmy still asleep?” Tiffany asked when I sat down next to her at the counter.
“Yeah, she’s not really an early riser,” I said.
“I like Angela,” Tiffany announced. “She’s really nice. And pretty.”
“Yeah, she is both of those things,” I agreed, accepting the plate of buttermilk pancakes Mom handed me.
“How can you even eat pancakes without syrup?” my sister demanded, appalled.
“I’ve gotten used to it,” I replied, stuffing a big forkful into my mouth and smiling with enjoyment.
“Yuck,” Tiffany said as she turned away. “That’s gross.”
“No, you’re gross,” I teased, poking her in the ribs.
“Hey!” she protested, then realized she was being loud and clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Do you guys have any plans for the day?” I asked Mom.
“I was thinking of taking Tiffany to the La Brea Tar Pits, and maybe the Watts Towers. She’s never seen either one.”
“Emmy wants to go with us,” Tiffany said. “She’s never seen either one of those things, either.”
“Then I think she should go with you two,” I agreed. “I don’t think you two have ever gone out in public with Emmy, have you? You’re in for an experience.”
“What do you mean?” Tiffany asked, beating Mom to the punch.
“You’ll see,” I said. “You’ll see.”
Concerned, Mom asked, “Is it something I should be concerned about?”
“No, not concerned,” I said. “It’s just that she attracts attention everywhere she goes, that’s all.”
“Yeah, I can see how that would happen,” Mom admitted, thinking about it. “She sure wouldn’t blend in in a crowd.”
“She doesn't even try,” I agreed.
Angela joined us about that time, wearing the way-too-big Cardinal T shirt she’d stolen from me. “Good morning,” she said, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “Pancakes?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.
“How many would you like?” Mom asked, grabbing the mixing bowl, ready to make some more batter.
“Two. No, three,” Angela said as she sat on my lap. “That would be wonderful. Thank you.”
“Good morning, babe,” I said, giving her a little kiss. “Is Em still asleep?”
“She asked me to give her another half an hour.”
“Do you have any plans for today?” I asked, rubbing her back.
“Jenna asked me to come over and help her develop a workout plan, now their home gym is complete,” Angela replied with a yawn. “Maybe we would get lunch or something after, I dunno.”
“Is Andy away this weekend?” I asked.
“No, the Rams have a bye week,” she said, displaying a better mastery of football lingo than I would have expected. All that time hanging out with Jenna, probably.
“Well, tell them I said hello, even though we just saw them last night,” I said.
“I will,” Angela said, leaning contentedly back into me.
“We’re gonna go see dinosaurs,” Tiffany announced. “With Emmy.”
“Dinosaurs?” Angela asked, her brow furrowed. “Be careful- they bite.”
“No they don’t,” Tiffany said. “Because they’re dead. They got stuck in the tar a million years ago, but then eventually floated to the surface and got put in a museum.”
“I don’t think there are any dinosaurs,” I said. “I think it’s all saber-toothed tigers, giant sloths, things like that from the Ice Age.”
“Like Sid and Manny? And Diego?” Tiffany asked. It took me a moment, but I realized that she was talking about the animated film from before she was even born.
“Yeah, like them,” I agreed.
“That will be so amazing!” Angela said, somehow making it sound genuine and not condescending at all.
After a little bit Angela went to wake Emmy, leaving me alone with Mom and Tiffany.
“I like her,” Tiffany declared. “She’s nice.”
“Yeah, she is,” I agreed. “I like her, too.”
A few minutes later Emmy and Angela emerged from the bedroom, hair damp but clean. Both were dressed for their respective days, ready to go. Me, I was still in sweats with no intention of getting dressed at all.
After Angela left to go see Jenna and Emmy left with Mom and Tiffany, I grabbed my laptop to get some work done. I was deep in a pile of bids to renovate one of our apartment complexes in Sunnyvale when Grace and Rosalie finally stumbled out of bed.
“Hey, Leah,” Grace said, still sleepy. “Is there any coffee?”
“There will be when you make some,” I replied, not looking up.
“Ugh,” she replied, shuffling into the kitchen.
“We’re going to Magic Mountain,” Rosalie announced. “It’ll be fun.”
“Yeah, I like Magic Mountain,” I agreed absently. “Make sure you do the roller coaster that holds you upside down and backwards. That one is the best.”
“Upside down and backwards?” she asked. “That sounds terrifying!”
“Oh, it is.”
After the two of them left and I had the place to myself, I put on some music and returned to work. Those bids weren’t going to select themselves, after all.
I was surprised when Tiffany came rushing in the front door, followed at a more civilized pace by my mom and Emmy. Glancing at my watch, I saw that it was already mid-afternoon- somehow the hours had just flown by.
“Lee! We saw just what you said- Dire wolves, giant sloths, mammoths- all sorts of animals!” Tiffany said.
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“Which one was your favorite?” I asked, closing down my computer.
“There was this baby saber-toothed tiger that was all, like, rawr!” she said, holding her hands up like claws.
Emmy came over to my chair and said in a soft voice, “I have a headache. I am going to take a nap.”
I gave her a kiss and asked, “Too much sun?”
She nodded, so I gave her hand a squeeze and asked, “Did you have a good time?”
“Yes, it was a lot of fun, but just too much,” Emmy said, giving me another kiss and heading to the bedroom.
“Is she O.K.?” Mom asked.
“Yeah, she’ll be fine,” I said. “She can’t spend too long outside in the day. She gets headaches from the bright light.”
“I wish I would’ve known,” Mom said, sounding contrite. “We could have skipped the Watts Towers.”
“It’s alright,” I assured her. “Emmy would’ve told you if it got too bad. She normally wears the kind of sunglasses mountain climbers have- you know, the super dark kind to prevent snow blindness? She must have forgotten to bring ‘em.”
“You told me all those years ago that she was light sensitive, but I guess I never realized it was that bad,” Mom said.
“Most of the time it’s not, but we do a lot of things to make her life easier in those respects.”
“Such as?”
“Well, all our cars have windows that are tinted really dark, for example. When we go down to the pool, we go in the late afternoon, when the sunlight isn’t very strong, and she wears some heavy-duty sunblock all the time, whenever she goes out anywhere in the day.”
“Are all her people like that?”
“No, just Emmy. It’s part of her condition, you know, the one I told you about,” I said, not wanting to spell it out in front of Tiffany, who had lost interest in the conversation anyway and was busy on her phone.
“Is there any change in that, um, prognosis?” Mom asked.
“No, and Emmy refuses to even consider the idea of medical intervention of any kind,” I said, maybe a tiny bit bitterly.
“Is it cultural?” Mom asked.
“I’m pretty sure it is,” I agreed, unsurprised that Mom had seen straight to the heart of it.
“If that’s the case, there’s really not much you can do,” Mom said, putting her hand on mine.
“I haven’t actually reached the ‘acceptance’ stage of grief yet,” I said. “And I’m not sure I ever will, but I can’t make Emmy do what she doesn’t want to do.”
“No, no, you can’t,” Mom agreed.
That night Emmy slept in the middle. Her headache hadn’t gone away with her nap, but she said that having the two of us on either side was a comfort and made her feel better, so Angela and I were happy to do what we could.
The next morning when Angela and I left to go driving with the boys, Emmy said she felt better but was going to sleep in anyway.
“I’m worried about Emmy,” Angela admitted in the elevator.
“She spent too long in the sun yesterday,” I explained. “She knew better but I suspect she didn’t want to ruin Tiffany’s day by asking to go home early.”
“She told me about your honeymoon,” Angela said. “I asked her if she would like the three of us to go to one of those resorts in the Seychelles, you know, where the cabins are out over the water? She told me about what a disaster it was in Key West.”
“You know what’s funny?” I asked as we waited for the car to be brought up. “When she was young, she’d always dreamed of places like those resorts you mentioned. That’s why we went to Key West- white sand beaches, warm turquoise water, plus the town is famously gay-friendly.”
“But she got super sunburned and sick, right?”
“Yeah,” I said as the valet handed me the keys to the freshly detailed M6. “She did.”
As we drove out to Malibu, I explained how Emmy had simply let the day get away from her and overdid it, then paid for it for nearly a week afterwards.
“So if we do go to one of those places, we just need to stay inside in the middle of the day, that’s all. Just enjoy the early morning and late afternoon and evening,” Angela suggested. “Hey, maybe we can go to one of those clothing optional places! I read about a famous one in Jamaica!”
“You can post the pics on your socials,” I joked. “You’d get plenty of hits.”
“Yes, that’s true…” Angela said in a mock thoughtful tone. “Maybe we can go someplace else,” Angela suggested after a minute to two of silence. “Just for a short vacation- maybe a Friday through Monday long weekend or something.”
“We’ll be moving into the new house in two weeks, and then not even two weeks later is Christmas, then New Year’s,” I said, skeptically.
“Moving all our stuff will only take two days at the most,” Angela countered. “We aren’t even moving any furniture at all, right? So basically it’s just our clothes and other stuff like that. Emmy’s stereo and guitars, and not much else.”
“I guess that’s true, for the most part, but there’s more than you’d think. Emmy and I brought a U Haul loaded with stuff when we came down from Palo Alto.”
Pulling into the parking lot where we always meet, I was surprised to see we were the first ones there. “Care for some coffee?” I asked, shutting off the engine.
“You say the nicest things sometimes,” Angela replied with an adorable smile.
I followed her into the coffee shop, admiring the way her leggings fit like a second skin. Angela really did have an incredible butt, a butt that she spent literally hours a day in the gym to develop. It was so very worth it.
Angela and I were waiting for our drinks when Stephen and Teddy Bear walked in and spotted us.
“You guys order already?” Teddy Bear asked, waving vaguely at the menu board behind the baristas.
As if to answer him, the girl called out our names to let us know our caffeinated beverages were ready.
“Guess so,” Teddy Bear said with a laugh.
The two guys had made their way up to the front of the line when Stein and Geoff (who’d been driving with us less and less) came in, followed by Jimmy and his sister.
“Lizzie! Miss Colombia 2011!” Jimmy crowed when he spotted us, coming over to say hello.
Looking mild annoyed, Angela said, “I was runner-up in 2010. I never actually won the title.”
“Close enough! You would have won for sure if you’d competed in 2011, amirite?” Jimmy asked, looking to me for confirmation.
“Mos def,” I replied, and bumped fists with the guy.
“Jiiiimmy,” his sister called in a petulant voice to get him to get in line with her, since she was almost to the front and he was the one with the spending money.
“So, whose turn is it to lead?” Stein asked, sitting down with a nod to Angela and me.
“I’m thinking it’s been a while since Geoff drove with us, so maybe he gets his turn,” I said as Geoff joined us. “Geoff, you want to take the lead today? We haven’t seen much of your Carrera recently.”
“Yeah, freaking work, you know how it is,” he grumbled. “Our damned manufacturer is giving us all kinds of grief. I swear, I’ve spent more time in Shenzhen recently than I have at home.”
“So, how about you blow off some steam and take the lead dog spot, then?” Teddy Bear suggested.
“Yeah, I guess I could use the stress relief,” Geoff admitted, giving me a brief flash of a grateful look for suggesting he get the number one spot. “Hey, do any of you guys mind if we go a little farther afield? Like, maybe 33?”
After a confirming glance at Angela, I said, “We’ve got nothing else planned for today.”
“It’s been forever since I’ve hit 33,” Stein said, thoughtfully.
“33?” Jimmy asked, joining us at the big table. “I’d be down for it, but…” he said, tilting his head in the direction of his sister, who was still waiting for her drink.
Stephen said, “I’ve got a lunch date I can’t miss, so no 33 for me, I’m afraid.”
Looking a bit crestfallen, Geoff said, “Well, maybe next time.”
“Nah, my man,” Jimmy sad. “Me and Zeke, we can stay local, and the rest of you go bust out a run or maybe two on 33. No reason you guys need to limit yourselves just because we can’t take the time.”
“You sure?” Geoff asked, looking back and forth between Jimmy and Stephen.
“Yeah,” Stephen said with a shrug. “You kids go have fun, just make sure you’re home by dark.”
“Do I know this 33?” Angela asked in a soft voice, intending the question just for me.
“No, we haven’t driven it together,” I answered. “It makes for a fairly long day in the saddle.”
“It’s gonna be, like, a six hour loop, if we hit Cerro,” Stein said. “And I’m totally down with that.”
I looked again at Angela, just to check that it was O.K. with her before I committed, and she nodded yes.
“We’re in,” I said.
“Man! A full day of driving!” Teddy Bear said, looking forward to the prospect.
While Geoff laid out his proposed loop with the gas and lunch stops, Stephen and Jimmy took off to hit the local roads.
The start of the drive was north on the freeway all the way to Gorman, then northwest on one of the finest driving roads anywhere. Since our pace wasn’t that high and we were in the tail end of the line of cars, I took the opportunity to pull off at a particularly spectacular view point.
“Check this out,” I said as we stepped from the car on the gravel pullout. “That’s the Central Valley way down there. That's about six thousand feet down- two thousand meters.”
“What mountains are those over there?” Angela asked, pointing off into the distance.
“That’s the southern end of the Sierras,” I told her. “A bit farther north is the highest peak in the forty-eight states- Mt Whitney. It’s over fourteen thousand feet tall.”
“We have twenty mountains taller than that in Colombia,” Angela said dismissively.
“Well, sure,” I agreed. “The Andes are the second tallest mountain range in the world, right? But here, this is the tallest we’ve got.”
“I thought Colorado had the highest mountains?”
“They like to think so,” I snorted. “Let’s catch back up,” I suggested, so we got back into the car and resumed speed.
It took us a little while to reel in the others, but that was fine- I got to stretch the M6’s legs a bit on that vertiginous mountain road, to Angela’s delight.
The first part of 33 coming from the north is pretty, but also pretty boring. It isn’t until it climbs back up into the mountains that things get fun, but that’s alright. Angela enjoyed looking at the scenery, so very different from the urban landscape of Los Angeles.
Eventually we rolled into Ojai for lunch, marking the end of the good roads.
“This is super cute!” Angela said, looking at the little shops along the main street’s colonnaded district.
“Don’t let any of the locals hear you,” I cautioned.
“Why not?” Angela asked, her brow furrowed in that cute way of hers.
“They’re smug enough already,” I said. “They don’t need any more confirmation they live in the best place in the world.”
“This is the best place in the world?” Angela asked, still not understanding.
“The locals think so,” I said as we followed the others into a parking lot for a cute little café. As Angela had pointed out, everything there was cute.
As we waited for a table to be cleared for us, Geoff looked at the rest of us. “Thanks a lot, guys. I really did need that.”
“No problem,” Teddy Bear replied. “It was good to get out of town.”