Ava had spent twenty five years in one small town and had left it a grand total of two times before her final exodus and one of those times had been a 30 minute plane ride to the adjoining state. As a child she had dreamed of adventures involving travel to distant and exotic locations. Since going to Springfield and creating a new life she had put some serious mileage on her roller case. She had seen cities and countries that most of the people in her home town only read about in newspapers. It was not uncommon for her to have spent more time in airports and hotel rooms than she spent at her own home in San Francisco. But it never got old, yeah it got crazy and it got stressful trying to figure out time differences for meetings and how to possibly cram one more second in each day yet when she turned the key into her door it was never with a relieved sigh. More than once she stood in the doorway looking in with the feeling that she had somehow picked the wrong door. The key fit and the furniture looked right but it didn't feel like home. She had even spent her own cash to stay in rooms one extra day just so that she wouldn't have to go back and face that emptiness that she couldn't fill up with pictures or a Bose sound system. There was nothing particularly wrong with her condo. It had every amenity that the upwardly mobile and successful would want. Huge walk in closets. Amazing kitchen, high ceilings, balcony, even a freaking fireplace. Every single individual that had come inside its walls had fallen in love and looked at her with obvious jealousy and at first she had thought okay its just the newness. It just didn't have her personality yet. It just was the chaos that surrounded her life. And so she left that place and if possible found one even better. A friend had joked that she came close to slapping Ava when she had lucked up on her current place because it wasn't fair that she spent months trying to find some place livable and Ava had found spectacular without a realtor. Whatever the wrongness was she had packed it with the rest of her belongings and it greeted her each time she opened the door. "Hello you thought you could leave me" it said. "You thought that all the things you shove in here are going to cover up and fill this hole?" So standing in the doorway she tried one final time to feel at home.
Perhaps it wasn't airports that she really loved at all but the possibilities that they presented. Life screwed up in one location so what pack it up and go. Whenever she looked at the flight schedules she had the feeling that if she only picked the right destination she would end up where she was supposed to be. When she got to that place it would all make sense and everything that had troubled her would be explained. In that place she would suddenly realize why her mom had given her away to strangers rather than love her. She would know understand why her mother died living her alone and lost at 18. Why the men she loved always left. That's what she felt when she looked at the boards and after rechecking her flight to Springfield again she hoped it to be true.
"Mommy, Sarah is having a sleepover for her birthday and Brittany had one too. Can I have one for mine?" Emma placed the question to her mother but directed her pleading eyes to Natalia because she knew it was going to be differed to real decision maker.
"Umm Bean I don't think that right now is the best time for a sleepover honey. Why don't you get your things ready we can drop you to school"
"Okay but mommy" Emma started her voice rising higher with each syllable. Normally Emma was a complete angel but once she got a whine on it was comparable to someone raking the sidewalk as far as Olivia was concerned and since she had no desire to entertain a bunch of eight year old anytime soon it was best to distract her.
"Em did I tell you that Ava was coming for a visit."
"Really? Wow." Emma beamed
Natalia looked at Olivia positively estatic that her ears would not be abused for another couple of hours.
"When?"
"Today I think"
"For how long?"
"I don't know baby"
"When does she come in? Can I go with you to pick her up? Is she going to stay here with us? She can read me my bedtime stories. I can take her to see the new ducks."
"Bean." Olivia laughed "slow down. She won't be here at least until this afternoon so that means school for you bud."
The three of them rode to work with Emma informing them of Ava's complete itinerary for her time in Springfield. Olivia raised an eyebrow to Natalia wondering if her Ava was ready for her little sister. If Ava had any illusion that she going to laze around the house and enjoy the country air Emma was quickly going to disabuse her of that soon enough. Each time Ava stepped on the farm Emma felt the need to keep her apprised of any change no matter how small. Olivia still was awed by the fact that the relationship between them had none of the envy or jealousy that she had expected. Expected hell she had personally fostered. Time and time again she had made it clear to Ava that she only had one daughter during their earlier days, doing everything she could to make the young woman feel as dirty and expendable as she had felt on the night of her conception. By all rights Ava should hate Emma for getting everything Olivia had refused to provide her but she had not. She had loved her sister even when she had hated her mother. Her daughters were better than she could have ever dared dream and she wondered again if perhaps Natalia was right about her God.
"Em be sure to leave some time during the day for Ava to visit her friends enjoy Springfield."
"But I thought you said she was coming to see us"
"She is Bean but remember she's still got to spend some time with Colin and Reva and maybe her old friends."
The thought that Ava could have any interest in anything other her wasn't sitting too well with Emma as she looked at her frowning face through the rearview mirror.
"Sweetheart Ava is going to want to spend time with you don't you worry but don't wear her out too much she's kind old like your mommy and me" Natalia laughed.
"Nuuh she's not that old." Just like that after a few words from Natalia everything was okay. She's the best thing that ever happened to you Spencer and don't you forget it.
Rolling onto the tarmac in Springfield shocked her. She had never heard of Springfield in her life when she had bought a one way bus ticket to the town several years ago and that alone fact had sold her on it. If she failed and made a complete waste of her life there she could easily leave and no one would be the wiser. It was a nobody town for a trying to figure out how to be a somebody. After her mother had died she lost her only connection in the world and she had gone there looking an anchor and knowing that one way or the other her life would change. Entering the city again this time in first class section of a plane instead of the cramped backseat of a bus she felt again that life had skewed and Springfield was her chance to right it.
