Page 42 of Stops Along the Way
The clerk slides the key cards over the counter and then we go stand off to the side, waiting for the guys since there’s just the one employee working this area right now.
Grady and Declan fall into easy conversation with the guy behind the desk, and while there’s a prolonged moment of typing on the computer, Declan turns and gives us a thumbs-up shortly after.
“Looks like they got a room,” I tell Amelia, both relieved they won’t be sharing a sleeping space with us and mildly irritated that it all went so smoothly, even though I’m glad Declan gotthe favorable outcome rather than having to scramble to figure something else out. It’s just somewhat annoying at the same time. “We’re all good. We can head upstairs.”
Amelia wiggles in place. “Good, I need to pee.”
We hurry down the hall with patterned carpeting and generic paintings on the walls, past large windows that look into the empty swimming pool, and find the elevators in the far corner near the emergency exit.
On our way up to the fourth floor, I ask, “You have more than one swimsuit, right? That we put in the garbage bags.”
“Yeah, I have a couple.” My sister answers as if this is a general question and not one with another suggestion hidden behind it. She must be too focused on rushing to the bathroom, dancing in place.
As the elevator doors open, I step back and let her bolt out first, but she stops at the divide, waiting for me to read the sign and direct us the correct way down the hall. “To the right,” I call out, and without missing another step, she races down the hall. I struggle to keep up. “Why do you have multiple swimsuits?”
She walks tight against the wall, pausing briefly to read one room plaque more closely and deducing that ours is two doors down. “From that one-credit swim class.”
“When did you take a swim class?”
She tilts her head back in anI already told you thissort of way as she taps the room key against the door reader. It flashes red. “This is our room, right?” she asks.
I reach forward and take the key, trying it again with a little more patience, and it registers as green, the mechanismunlocking and granting us entrance. Amelia pushes past me, drops her things on the desk, and makes it to the bathroom. Leaving the door slightly ajar, she calls out from the toilet, “Why do you need a swimsuit? You want to go swimming?”
It seems like a better idea than sitting around this hotel room stuck in my thoughts. I’d rather float around, weightless and unbothered—if that’s even a state that would be possible for me to achieve tonight.
“The pool was empty,” I shout to her, also setting my stuff down and turning the key card over in my hands. Without waiting for another response, I add, “I’ll go back to the car and find us the swimsuits.”
The reverse course feels longer than our arrival, like the hallway has elongated now that I’m making this trek on my own, and the parking lot seems creepier. Declan and Grady weren’t still in the lobby, so they must be up in a room already. It’s probably not the same floor as ours or I would’ve passed them, but I really have no idea.
I’m sure we’ll touch base at some point tonight, to make plans for tomorrow, at least, so although I’m conflicted, I get ahead of the evening and send Declan a text from the parking lot.
Iris:Hey, yeah, so me and my sister are going to swim in a bit
It’s more of an update than an invitation.
Hopefully, Declan doesn’t have a swimsuit and decides to sit this out, but if not, I can’t wear my hearing aids in thewater, so it’s not like we’ll have to spend much time talking. I could splash around on the opposite end of a rather large indoor pool from him and not have to say much of anything until tomorrow.
There’s still nine hours on the road back to Omaha.
.....
“We haven’t matched like this in over a decade,” I say as Amelia and I stare at ourselves in the mirror. I found two athletic racerback one-piece suits, her swimming class attire, with the exact same blue body and orange-outlined straps. “Why do you have two of the same exact swimsuit?”
“It was the one on sale because apparently no one wanted this color.” She slides on a pair of shorts. “I got two so that I wouldn’t have to wash them as often.”
There’s no text response from Declan, and I decide to leave my phone in the room, along with my hearing aids; without them in, the world falls into a hushed hum. Without the amplified volume, everything around me fades away, settling into the background like I’m acting in my own movie and the only sounds that matter are the ones I seek out.
The rest is just noise.
It lends a childhood-vacation quality to this night that clashes with how grown-up it feels to be on our own. I’m in a hotel with my sister, in dorky matching swimsuits, but without our parents or any supervision. We’re the adults here? That doesn’t seem right. The strong chlorine scent takes me backto wanting to cannonball into the deep end, my dad frowning in the distance, and my mom yelling something about not running that I can’t quite hear and therefore ignore.
We drop our stuff on an empty table, and Amelia slides into the deep end from the ledge while I walk slowly down the shallow steps. The water isn’t cold, but it’s not warm, either, and takes adjusting to, but after being scrunched up in the car all day, it feels amazing to submerge and spread my limbs about. I wade forward until the water rises to my chin and I have to stand on my toes to keep above the surface.
Once or twice, there’s someone walking past the window in the hallway, but neither Declan nor Grady has shown up. I settle in, feeling like there’s a good chance they won’t want to join us in the pool, so it can just be my sister and me.
Like this whole trip was supposed to be.
Amelia swims a few laps across the narrow side of the deep end without much effort. She then drifts over in my direction, floating on her back nearby, keeping her voice loud and accessible. “Should I do?” she calls out, but I’ve missed what she’s asking about.
