The car rounded a long corner, and then, beyond a hill covered with young pine and spruce trees, they saw houses and many low buildings in the distance. A sign read:
delton, va – 3 miles
“Woo! There it is,” Leo exclaimed.
“Check it out!” said Essie, leaning forward. “What do you think, Julia?”
Julia sat up and looked out the front windshield with a mostly blank expression. “Looks like a town.”
Leo pressed her. “Does it look like the place you want to spend your college years at?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Depends on the people.”
“Hmm. That I agree with.”
Essie shrugged in kind. “I think it looks nice from here.”
Sometimes Julia was completely baffling, and other times she made a disturbing amount of sense. That dichotomy wasn’t quite as baffling as how quickly she would flip between the two.
One attempt he had made to understand his stepdaughter had been to look at her Instagram profile some months ago. Leonard was entirely unfamiliar with any form of social media but understood that it was a large part of many people, especially young people’s, lives. He had gotten as far as reading her profile bio, which read, “I am a foot nudist.”
From there, he had placed the smartphone down.
-Julia-
The town of Delton sprang into existence around them as the car slowed and the placid road snaked around a flattish hillside. She perked up and opened her eyes to take it all in.
The town was…quaint? That seemed like the right word. The main road here—Garden Way, it was called—took them on the western outskirts of Delton, with the primary body of the town being eastward. They passed by pretty houses nestled amid the orange-leafed trees on their left, then an apartment building on their right that looked refurbished. Streetlights became lit. Shiny cars drove around and children were playing in their yards. Julia watched a trio of two boys and one girl chasing around a growling dog that clearly was growing aggressive, and yet the children—none of them older than ten—were giggling. She raised an eyebrow.
As she had always heard, it was a relatively small town. No bigger than where they’d come from. But if nothing else, it was new.
She breathed a deep sigh as she imagined moving into one of those houses. One with red brick walls and ivy climbing on its side. Waking up early and taking in the moist, misty morning air. Touching bare feet to dewy lawn grass. Her body absorbing some energy unseen, garnered from the dew, the air, the ivy—or just the living itself.
She imagined going out shopping all on her own and working a minimum wage, part-time job to support herself. By herself. Free.
She suddenly realized she was purring.
“Sounds like you’re into this place, Jules,” teased Leo.
She barked a soft, sarcastic laugh.
Let him chuckle. He was just coping with the prospect of losing his last daughter.
Like they’re gonna be sad to be rid of me!
Another imaginary scene came to her of her home back in West Virginia, empty except for Mr. and Mrs. Marsh and the nearly-croaked cat, Thimble. In her mind’s eye, Mom and Dad grew older and more wrinkled in decades that passed like seconds and quickly were shrunken and gray haired, leaning back in rocking chairs as they knitted quilts or read musty brown books. Thimble was buried out back, or perhaps stuffed and posed on a stand somewhere.
A weird scene. But a probable one. Meanwhile, Julia would enjoy her college days for the terrifying, exciting freedom they offered and use it to launch the rest of her life. Then one day, perhaps five years from now, she would step out onto the balcony of her 750-square foot New York City apartment—forty-fourth floor—dressed in silky lounge pajamas and, from high above, take in the city’s pleasant commotion. Buzzing and beating like a beehive’s heart.
Then a tall and muscular man (possibly named Phillip) with a five-o’-clock shadow and an open robe would emerge from the door and hold her tightly from behind…
Or maybe something else entirely. Who knew? As long as it was new.
Leonard slowed the car to a stop at the first stoplight, and Julia turned and felt time freeze as she beheld a cemetery to their right, a four-way crossing on the road just ahead, and beyond that, Fermin Delton University.
Six stately buildings rose up on the main campus, with more dormitory buildings just east. A juggernaut in the midst of an otherwise unremarkable town. It commanded the attention of everyone, the jewel of Delton, the center of the place’s otherwise meager connection with broader culture and progress.
A thirst for that progress began to well up in Julia. The desire to live a greater life than she had been living. To find her purpose among those who had made it.
“Look at that! The university,” Essie said.
“It looks beautiful,” noted Leonard.
Julia swallowed. She felt her eyes drifting to the graveyard—the only piece of the town she’d seen so far that looked wholly run-down and left to decay—for a moment. Then she refocused on the distant campus and the students walking on its sidewalks and pathways.
She wanted to be with them, to bask in their achievement and knowledge, hoping to absorb some for herself along the way.
To become one of them.
And she was running out of patience.
The light turned green.
-Leonard-
Old, yet robust and sightly buildings painted by the last touches of sunlight surrounded them as they turned left and made their way downtown. There were fine businesses, some with hand-painted signs. Others with modern titling and glitzy interiors. A building with a small clock tower emerging from the top, giving the town an air of old-time, colonial stateliness.
Smiling, normal people were on the sidewalks or sitting in lawn chairs on their porches.
One heavy-set man with an unbuttoned shirt and jeans sat on one of those lawn chairs with a near-empty wine glass in hand, beside another man of shorter stature and thick spectacles. Both stared up at the sky. The shorter of them drank the last of his wine and got up to go inside, but stopped and turned to the heavy man as if to offer a refill. The heavy man raised a palm, as if to decline.
Well-tended shrubbery built into the city sidewalks seemed to drive home the point of Delton being immaculately curated. Leonard could barely keep his eyes on the road for all the beauty.
He switched the radio off and turned to Essie as he came to a red light at a four-way stop beside a homey, small-town-style diner. “My new theory is that Maxine’s been busy enjoying Delton,” he said.
Essie rubbed her chin and admired the scenery. She had a look of practiced, intentional calm; a change from those days when she’d gained gray hairs worrying about her stepdaughter’s poor communication. For Essie’s sake especially, Leo was glad the time for reunion was nigh. “It is great. But it doesn’t strike me as much of a college town.”
“I heard that most of the stuff for college kids is on the campus itself,” Julia explained. “It’s got more to do than the rest of the town.”
Leonard felt if he listened well, he could hear the entire place humming in unison. He looked to the charming little diner and noticed a painted message in its broad window, beautiful dinner plates steaming behind it:
WHILE TIMES ARE CHANGING, OUR PRICES STAY LOW!
Every person he saw inside wore a blissful smile on their face. A grand evening at the Delton Family Diner, straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting or something. It was contagious, in a way.
All through the drive, Leo’s mind had been caught up in a whirlpool of concerns about missing work, seeing Dennis again, and the prospect of seeing Maxine again. Feeling a phantom buzz at his hip, his hand would often reach for his pager only to remember that it was left back home.
Now that he was in Delton, though, he was beginning to forget the world outside altogether. No phantom buzz, no thoughts of golfing or visits with friends or house payments or preparing for the yearly carnage of Halloween. Just Delton, Virginia.
The current home of his baby daughter.
What would they speak about? Would it be an awkward reunion, or a happy one? He truly had no idea. All he knew was that a reunion was past due.
A right turn and short drive down Main Street brought them to the Delton Standard Inn, a wide and brightly-lit five-story building—probably the tallest in town outside the University—with a prominent overhang above the front doors. It had a more contemporary look to it than many of the town’s buildings, clean and quiet-looking. Leo found himself struck with pleasure at the mere sight of it.
He really ought to take more vacations.
“Here we are!” he announced as the car came to a merciful stop in a parking spot. “Let’s get settled, and then we’ll see about dinner.”
“Is Maxine gonna come eat with us?” asked Julia.
Leo paused and stuttered an uncertain sound for a moment. Maxine knew they were coming and planned to see them during the tours, but she hadn’t responded to Essie’s calls or texts today yet about when, where, or even if she would meet them to say hello tonight.
Par for the course.
“We’ll see,” Essie answered with a sigh.
After gathering up luggage from the trunk and waiting for Julia to take a quick photo of the hotel, they made their way through sliding doors and came to a clean, low-lit, empty, and fresh-scented warm lobby. A bellhop stood talking to the receptionist. Neither turned to look at the family until the three of them approached the desk.
Leo took a deep breath, keeping a firm grip on the heavy suitcase in his right hand and the duffel bag in his left. “Hi. We have a reservation under ‘Marsh.’”
The receptionist turned to him. Mid-twenties, pale, with gleaming teeth and sallow bags below her blue eyes.
“Perfect. We’ve been waiting for you.” She pulled out a key card and placed it sweetly in Essie’s palm when she stepped forward with a free hand. “You’re in Room 210. The number for room service is on the back of the card. Please enjoy your stay in Delton. Have you been here before?”
Something in her countenance felt to Leonard like she knew quite well they were brand new. The woman was eying them in a spellbound manner much like Leonard imagined someone who didn’t get around much might react to a visiting foreigner from some romantic, far-off country. Non-Deltoners, somehow, were new to her.
But that didn’t make a lick of sense; new kids from outside Delton came every year, funneling in from all over in the country and out. Was the receptionist enamored at the sight of West Virginians? Why was she grinning like that and looking up at him with expectant eyes?
If she was wanting a tip, she could forget it. Leonard made a nurse’s salary, not a doctor’s.
Leonard had wanted to see FDU when Maxine first left home two years prior, but neither he nor Essie had been able to get enough time off work to warrant a trip to Delton and had instead relied on a taxi drive and a favor from Dennis to get Maxine down the rest of the way. Today was their first sight of the place.
He motioned to Essie and Julia and started toward the elevator.
The bellhop grabbed Leo’s suitcase.
He was a tall and dark-skinned man with wide, brown eyes and a gap in his teeth. He mirrored the receptionist’s smile as he said, “Please, allow me to help.” His voice carried a thick African accent.
Leo swallowed. “Uh, sure.”
The bellhop brought over a dolly and began piling on their suitcases and bags. “Go on ahead and I’ll bring these up to you.”
He gave a puzzled look. “Aren’t you supposed to do that while we’re checking in?”
Immediately Essie frowned at him.
But the bellhop only smiled. “With key cards and internet, it’s difficult to get to that before check-in is already done. Times are changing, don’t you think?”
Leo breathed a nervous, smiling laugh in a poor attempt to bandage up his lack of decorum. “Yeah, it’s crazy.”
As they stepped into the elevator, Essie took Leo’s arm and raised her eyebrows at him, her smile slight and casual. He returned it.
“Where should we eat?” Julia asked, clutching her bare arms together like she was shivering, defying the fact that she had of her own free will opted not to wear a jacket.
“I saw a grocery store,” Essie suggested with a wink.
“As much as I love your cooking,” Leonard replied, “it’s getting late. Maxine still hasn’t responded, has she?”
“No,” she sighed after checking her cell phone once more. She inhaled a deep, deep breath. A mountain of concerns about Maxine would finally be conquered…very soon.
Julia winced, bewildered. An expression that mirrored Leonard’s feeling.
They settled into Room 210, with its one bed and wheeled-in cot—for Julia—already set nearby. It resembled every hotel room Leonard had ever been to, and he found its familiarity equal parts comforting and boringly predictable. Yet having not seen one for so long—had it really been more than two years? —he felt like a king.
“Let’s just get dinner without her. Can we order some pizza or something?” whined Julia.
“No. Because it’s cheaper if we eat at the restaurant,” he answered, tapping his forehead. She groaned.
Essie sighed loudly. “This is why I don’t like going on trips. Don’t you two want good food?”
Leonard could read another comment in her expression: Doesn’t Maxine miss my cooking?
At that moment, a knock came at the door. They let in the bellhop with the dolly of towered suitcases and started gathering them.
He nodded to them as he wheeled the dolly back out. “Please, enjoy your stay.” He caught sight of Julia and stopped for a moment. “Are you attending the University?” he asked.
She looked up at him. “Uh…just touring it. I might apply soon.”
That seemed to brighten his mood even more. “That’s wonderful. I attended myself—graduated just a few years ago. You are going to love it.”
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