Two very long weeks finally passed. They were especially long for Jennifer, who had been constantly packing and unpacking in anticipation. It took everything she had not to call Soleil; she knew that her coming to visit was a surprise. First thing in the morning they were set to leave, Jennifer flew into Elaine's room and jumped on her bed to wake her up. "Mommy, Mommy, get up! Today's the day! Today's the day!" she chanted. Swiftly sitting up, Elaine wearily snickered, "Okay, okay, settle down." After pausing for a yawn, she continuing, "Now, I know this is probably a dumb question, but are you packed?"
"Of course I am!" Jennifer shouted. "Are you? Did you pack last night?" she then interrogated. Elaine confessed, "No, I didn't yet… let me get ready and get breakfast and then I will. Alex is picking us up at noon." Jennifer began to panic, "We're going to run out of time! I'll get breakfast, Mommy. I'll make Jason help me. Jada (her and Jason's babysitter) taught us how to make pancakes. I think I remember how. Can I, please?" Elaine hesitated a bit at the thought of the kids cooking without her right there, but she figured that they were old enough. "Okay… but only if your brother helps you. And let me know before you turn the stove on. And remember not to touch the pan. Oh, and keep the handle on the inside. And don't put the heat on too high." Now she was panicking. Jennifer interrupted her mother's nervous babbling, "Mommy, don't worry. I'm ten years old. I can handle it." After reassuring Elaine with a hug, Jennifer climbed down off the bed. As Jennifer was leaving, Elaine thought aloud, "You're right, I guess I can't always see how fast you're growing up." Jennifer just turned before rolling her eyes and left the room. There was far too much to be done to stop and think about 'how fast she was growing up'. So, while Jennifer (and Jason, against his will) prepared breakfast, Elaine got herself ready and packed. "Breakfast is ready!" Jennifer called. Elaine was so proud that they made it without any help; even though the pancakes were just a tiny bit undercooked… but it wasn't too noticeable. After they ate, Elaine went to do the dishes, but Jennifer stopped her. "No Mommy, me and Jason got them. You need to pack." At hearing his name, Jason responded, "You and Jason don't 'got them'. I need to pack too." Jennifer gasped. "Why didn't you tell me!?" She rushed over to him and pushed him towards their room. "Go, go, go!" Jason rolled his eyes. At least he didn't have to do the dishes. Jennifer ran back over to her mother, "Okay, now you go finish packing as well." Unable to help herself, Elaine laughed, "Jennifer, sweetie, calm down. There's plenty of time to get everything done. It's barely even nine thirty. Our plane doesn't leave until one twenty five."
"Why couldn't we have gotten an earlier flight? We won't get there until dinner time. I want to spend as much time with Soleil as possible." she sighed as she sat down on the couch. Following, Elaine and sat down beside her. "I know you do. But this was the earliest fight today. And I also let you miss school so we could take this flight instead of the five am tomorrow. So you're getting more time this way. We'll be there this evening, all of tomorrow, and most of Sunday."
"Why don't we leave Monday? That way we get all of Sunday too. I don't mind missing school!" Jennifer suggested hopefully, even though she well knew that the answer would be no. "Nice try." Elaine chuckled as she stood up. "You go make sure you have everything, I'll clean up."
Promptly at noon, Alex arrived to take them to the airport. Jennifer had been watching the door for fifteen minutes beforehand, so when Alex knocked she immediately let him in. "Finally, you're here!" she shouted as she jumped into his arms. Picking her up, Alex asked. "Am I late?" Elaine came out of her room saying, "No, she's just been counting the seconds for the past week or so." After giving him a quick 'hello' kiss she finished, "And she's been counting the milliseconds since she woke up." Simply laughing, he set Jennifer down. After helping them carry their luggage to the car, they were off to the airport. Alex and Jason waited with Elaine and Jennifer until they were to board the plane. To keep them busy while they waited, Elaine gave the kids money buy something from the little store. Meanwhile, this gave her and Alex a chance to talk. "I'm going to miss you." he guiltily admitted. Agreeing, she placed her hand on his knee and said, "I'm going to miss you too… but hey, I'll be back Sunday night. Though, I think we've gotten accustomed to seeing each other every day... What do you think? Can we survive a couple of days without each other?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure…" he started theatrically. "That's a whole forty eight hours—and then some. However will I sleep at night knowing that you're eight hundred miles away?" he leaned back in his seat and held his hand to his forehead being playfully dramatic, "What ever shall I do?" Jason and Jennifer had overheard Alex's little act and started laughing along with Elaine, and then Alex joined in as well. When the laughs subsided, Alex stated sincerely, "But really now, I will miss you, but I'll be happy knowing that you girls are having a good time. Besides, the time will fly. Jason and I have lots of fun things planned, don't we Jason?" he smiled and to which Jason nodded in reply.
Time came to board the plane. Jennifer and Elaine hugged and kissed Alex and Jason goodbye and then they were on their way. When they got off in Chicago, they were greeted by a very happy Gwen and Soleil. When Soleil saw Jennifer she screamed and ran to hug her. "I didn't know that we came here to see you!" she squealed. Gwen caught up with Soleil and greeted Elaine with a big hug. "I missed you so much!" she nearly cried. Elaine said the same as she hugged her back.
Gwen treated them to dinner at one of the new restaurants around, only to find out that the food was horrible. "I can't believe how much people raved about this place at the gallery." Gwen complained, "I think I'm eating rubber." Elaine agreed as she tried to choke down what was in her mouth. "Well... you know how a lot of those rich art people are. They'll eat and love anything fashionable-no matter how revolting it is."
Picking her meat up with her fork, Jennifer questioned, "Mommy, is this supposed to be chicken?" As Elaine inspected the meat, or whatever that was on her daughter's fork, Soleil took a bite of her food and ended up having to spit it out. After a big fuss (which ended up becoming a big scene), they managed to leave the restaurant only having to pay for their drinks. Gwen apologized about dinner. "How about we just get a pizza and eat it at my place?" she suggested. "Sounds good." The others agreed. They spent the rest of the evening eating pizza and visiting. Gwen let Soleil stay up later seeing as it was a special occasion, but when it did come time for bed, the two girls gave their mothers a hard time (it was expected though). After they finally got the kids to go to sleep, Elaine and Gwen continued catching up. Elaine really had missed Gwen; she owed a lot to her. Without her she never would have been able to get through the transition from New Your City to Chicago, she wouldn't have had someone to talk to as much about all the confusion around Alex's letter and her relationship with Arnie. Sure, she talked to Golda as well, but not nearly as much as she had with Gwen. Naturally, part of her just wanted to leave any memory of her time in Chicago behind and move on with her life, but she couldn't let Gwen go that easily. It was funny; she did a much better job at keeping in touch with Gwen than she had most of her friends back in New York. Yeah, she managed to keep in touch with Simka; but she really had to push herself to do so. Maybe it was because she had such strong relationships with the guys in New York, and leaving them was like leaving family. Also, she hadn't been crazy about the idea of moving in the first place. That was for Arnie. She felt close to Gwen and there was certainly a strong bond, but Chicago wasn't her home. Looking back wasn't so painful. Selfishly, she hoped someday Gwen would move to New York. Okay, it wasn't too, too selfish. Gwen had always wanted to be in New York, but she ended up living in Chicago. Unfortunately, she was finding success there. Moving would be less of an option for her as time went on. She would never let Gwen know these thoughts though. It wouldn't be fair. Instead of focusing on the fact Gwen lived in Chicago and herself in New York, making it hard to see her, she preferred to think of it as being the reason why she met Arnie and moved with him. If that hadn't happened she'd never have her as a friend.
"So Elaine…" Gwen started. "I was going to tell you this in my last letter but when I knew that you were planning on coming I wanted to tell you in person."
"What is it?" Elaine asked very curiously.
"One of the people who bought a painting is putting it in their gallery! Now even more people will be able to see my work." she radiated joyfully. Elaine cheered, "Oh Gwen, that is so fantastic! I'm so happy for you."
"Thanks." Gwen smiled. "You know, I've always wanted to be an artist. But of course my parents never approved. They saw it as a hopeless job with no future. Yeah, I could "paint pretty pictures" but they didn't believe that I could make a living off of them. I'm not usually one to say 'I told you so' but I feel so justified. I feel like I'm really going in the right direction."
"I'm so proud of you. You are so talented. One of these days you'll be famous and I'll be able to brag, "Yes, I'm friends with the artist Gwen Johnston." They both laughed at Elaine's pretentious voice. "But I am so happy for you. I can't even imagine how good it must feel."
"Do you have any dreams that seem like they slipped away?" Gwen asked, hoping Elaine wouldn't mind this curiosity. Elaine was silent a moment before answering. It was something she hadn't thought about for a while. "Wow, uh, gosh I'm sure there is."
"Like what?" Gwen persisted.
"Well, I always kind of thought I'd own my own gallery one day. But I've been stuck as a receptionist for so long that I've kind of lost hope. I already have to work two jobs to support myself and the kids. I guess maybe it could be a possibility when they're grown. I have made a lot of contacts over the years. And on occasion I've even been invited to parties that my bosses weren't even invited too."
Gwen, who well knew the art world social events, was shocked. "How did you ever manage that?" Elaine shrugged, "Well one was a chance meeting with the host in the elevator after a concert. But I was with my friend Jim—I've told you about him." Gwen knew who Elaine was talking about, and immediately understood the tone of Elaine's voice. Elaine continued. "I thought the night would be a total disaster—especially when the night's entertainment fell through and Jim offered to be the substitute. He started imitating a water fountain. When I told him that by entertainment they meant music, he sat at the piano and started terribly playing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Then out of nowhere he marvelously started playing a beautiful Frederic Chopin piece. I couldn't believe it. Luckily that's what people remembered and because of it I've been invited to a couple other gatherings."
"What I would have done to be a fly on the wall that night." she stated in amazement. "I seriously need to meet these people. They don't sound possible!" Elaine snickered at Gwen's ongoing disbelief about her friends. "Hey, I always told you how wonderful Alex was and you met him. Wasn't I right?"
Gwen poked fun, "Oh please, I met him for ten minutes. For all I know he's a complete jerk." Elaine laughed. "Jerks don't fly eight hundred miles just to make your kids stop screaming."
"Okay, okay, you win." she surrendered. "I'll let you have him, but I still want to meet the slimy dispatcher, the sweet but not all there boxer, the not on this planet reverend, and of course we can't leave out the infamous high-pitched voices of Latka and Simka."
Elaine laughed, "I'm telling you, I'm not making these people up!" Gwen threw her hands up, surrendering once more, though her 'I'm still not buying this' look was still going strong, "Fine, fine, whatever you say. Look, we should get to sleep. I told Golda that we'd meet her at nine for breakfast."
"Alright." Elaine said as she stood up. She was very excited to see Golda. When she first got to Chicago, Golda was the one who gave her a job at the gallery; or as Elaine put it, 'her first sign of hope'. She felt bad for not keeping in touch with her more, but Golda was a pretty secretive person, and rightly so. During Elaine's residence she confided in her about her past as a jewel thief. To this day Elaine still hadn't told a soul—not even Alex. She wasn't one to keep secrets from him, but seeing as Golda had been involved with the Mafia, it was best to remain quiet. So, given her mob history, Golda didn't send letters, and very seldom phoned New York City. It would be good to see her again. Another thing she was excited for was telling her all about her and Alex. Other than Gwen, Golda was the other person she confided in when she was feeling torn about who she should be with. After all of the complaining, venting, and even crying she did while she lived there, she couldn't wait to show her how much happier she was now. In fact, she'd never been so happy in her entire life. Next to the children, Alex was the best thing to ever happen to her; and she never tired of telling their story.
