The Blue Zone

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

The following morning rose clear and bright. From her hotel room on the edge of downtown, Kate could see Puget Sound and the sun glinting off glass-walled skyscrapers. She cracked the window, and the caw of gulls came into her room, along with a gust of brisk sea air.

It had been a long time since Kate had risen so expectantly.

Sharon called about nine and told Kate to meet her at noon in a restaurant called Ernie’s at the Pike Place Market, the most public venue she knew. Kate tried to figure out how she was going to fill the next three hours. She pulled on her Lycra tights and went for a jog along Western Avenue, stopping a few times to gaze at the colorful sailboats dotting the sound, the dazzling skyline rising above her, and the tip of the famous Space Needle. Afterward, she stopped for a coffee and a muffin at a Starbucks that claimed it was one of the first three ever opened. Around eleven she made it back to the hotel and changed into a green quilted jacket and jeans.

It was only a short walk from her hotel to the Pike Place Market. Kate got there a little early and strolled around the crowded wharf and shops. Ernie’s was a large, bustling café with outdoor seating in the center of the festive market. The square was packed with young families and tourists. Kiosks hawking cool artisan crafts, Rollerbladers gliding through the buzzing crowd, street artists, jugglers, mimes.

Kate stopped at a trinket stall and bought a small polished silver heart charm she thought she’d give to her mom. It had an inscription she thought was amusing.

Sugar Girl.

As she waited, glancing at her watch, the sea, and the festive scene, something old and long buried flashed into Kate’s mind.

She was in the old house. She was maybe eight or ten years old, and she had stayed home from school that day, sick. She’d been pushing her mom to go out and rent her a movie, the prospects of the long day recuperating at home seeming bleak.

“How about I show you a movie?” Her mother smiled.

Kate didn’t know what she meant.

They spent the next few hours on the floor in the den, Kate in her pj’s. From a carton of old things, Sharon pulled out a dog-eared, ancient-looking Playbill.

The original West Side Story.

“That was my favorite thing when I was about your age,” her mother said. “My mom took me to see it at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York. What d’ya say I take you?”

Kate beamed. “Okay.”

Her mom pushed a tape into the VCR and turned on the TV, and the two of them curled up together on the couch and watched the story of Romeo and Juliet and their families, recast as Tony and Maria, the Sharks and the Jets. At times her mother sang along, knowing every word-“When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way,/From your first cigarette to your last dying day”-and when they played the big dance number in the gym-“I like to be in America!”- Sharon leaped up and mimicked the steps to a tee, dancing in thrilling unison alongside the character of Anita, throwing her hands in the air and kicking up her heels. Kate remembered clearly how it made her laugh.

“Everyone I knew wanted to be Maria,” her mother said, “because she was the prettiest. But I wanted to be Anita because of how she danced.”

“I didn’t know you could dance like that, Mommy,” Kate said, astonished.

“You didn’t, huh?” Her mom plopped herself back down with a weary sigh. “Believe me, there’s a lot you don’t know about me, honey.”

They watched the rest of the movie, and Kate remembered crying as her mother sang, “There’s a place for us,” with the doomed Tony and Maria. Kate recalled how close it made her feel to her mom, how it became something she always remembered fondly. Maybe one day she’d have the chance to share it with her own daughter.

She smiled sweetly. There’s a lot you don’t know about me…

“Hon…?”

Kate turned. Sharon was standing there in front of her, at the market. She had on an orange turtleneck sweater and tortoiseshell sunglasses, her thick hair pulled back with a barrette.

“Mom!” The two of them hugged.

They gazed at each other, now in the light of day. Her mom looked so pretty. It was so good to be there.

“You won’t believe what I was just thinking about,” Kate confided, a little embarrassed, shielding her eyes from the sun.

“Tell me.” Sharon smiled. She looped her arm through Kate’s. “C’mon, we have a lot of things to catch up on.”