Page 21 of One Moment in Time
‘Is it just me that wants to sing Elvis songs and have a wee dance?’ Millie asked, and Zara shot her daggers, fearing she’d give the game away. Thankfully, Mum and Dad were both too busy climbing out of the van to notice.
They piled their luggage on to two trollies, paid the driver, and then, excitement bubbling, Zara led them into the terminal, heading in the direction of the British Airways desk. She saw her mum register the destination - London Heathrow - on the screen above the counter and watched as she smiled and all the tiredness dropped from her face.
Wow. If Mum was this happy when she thought they were only going to London, wait until she found out where they were actually headed.
Before they joined the queue, Zara stopped at a pillar about twenty metres from the check-in desks. It was now or never. She knew the ground agent would mention that they were transferring on to Vegas, so it was time to get in there first and then enjoy every second of their parents’ delighted reactions.
She gave Millie the subliminal signal and they launched into an unrehearsed explanation of their gift and what was to come.
‘Mum, Dad, you know that – apart from me – we’re not really a big gesture kind of family…’ Millie began, and Zara rolled her eyes. Trust her sister to point out the obvious. ‘But thirty years of marriage, well, that’s pretty much a miracle and it deserves a really special celebration.’
Okay, she’d redeemed herself, Zara decided, and took over the reins. ‘And we know you’ve made so many sacrifices for us over the years. Millie’s acting classes alone could have bought you another house.’
‘Two houses if you add in my dancing classes, but I’m great at a nightclub, so it was money well spent,’ Millie piped up.
Zara glossed right over that. ‘And then, helping us to open the shop… well, we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for you.’
‘Working long hours and smelling faintly of soil,’ Millie interjected.
Honest to God, why couldn’t she have a normal sister? Although, not that Zara would ever admit it, but this one was worth it for the amusement she provided.
‘Anyway,’ Zara said firmly, ‘as I was saying, we want to repay your love, your support and your general brilliance. So we’re taking you to—’
‘London!’ her mum blurted, beaming, as she gestured to the information screen. ‘Och, girls, I’m thrilled. I was hoping it was there. I can’t wait to go tour the galleries, maybe see a show…’
‘Well, you’ll definitely see a show, but it’s not London, Mum. It’s somewhere a bit more exciting than that. You see, we thought it would be perfect to take you back to where this all began, so we’re going to…’ A pause, then a conspiratorial glance, beaming faces, and a synchronised screech from the two sisters.
‘LAS VEGAS!’
Zara was frozen in the moment, arms thrown wide, smile on face, unable to comprehend why her mum was just staring at her like she couldn’t compute what was going on. Had they actually said Las Vegas out loud? She was sure they had, yet their mother’s expression was more stunned horror. Had mum been so desperate to go to London that she was now disappointed they were going to the entertainment capital of the world? What the hell was going on? And why did her body and facial expression refuse to change until she got some kind of reaction from her parents?
When it came, it was even more confusing. She was sure her mother whispered, ‘Oh no,’ and her dad, not untypically, said nothing, just glanced at her mum with a face that conveyed something between uncertainty, anxiety and horror.
Millie regained her powers of speech first. ‘Okay, we were expecting a response that was very slightly more enthusiastic than that one. We did just tell you that we’re taking you to Vegas, right? Or did we accidentally confess some dark secret that ends with anonymous tests in a clinic? Kidding, Dad.’
Zara shook her head, trying to make the synapses in her brain fire up in the right direction. This wasn’t on the list. It was supposed to be pure joy and wild excitement at this stage, not paralysed shock. ‘Mum? You are happy about this, aren’t you?’
There was an excruciating delay that was only a few seconds, but felt like a week and a half, before her mum finally forced – and Zara was sure that was the only way to describe it –forceda smile. There was another pause before she managed to add actual words.
‘Of course, we are, darlings. It’s just a bit of a shock, but thank you so much. This is… this is… this is wonderful.’
For the first time in her life, outside of Santa, the tooth fairy and the risk of your vagina falling off if you wore miniskirts in sub-zero temperatures (that last one was directed at Millie, aged fourteen), Zara was fairly sure her mother was lying to her.
10
BRENDA
This. Was. A. Nightmare.
Las Vegas.
The one place on earth that she’d quite happily go the rest of her life without revisiting.
How could this possibly have happened? Actually, she didn’t even need to question that. Her lovely, thoughtful, sentimental Zara and her wild, party animal, Millie. How could she not have considered that Vegas could be on the cards? In hindsight, it made perfect sense. Brenda just wished she’d seen it coming so that she could have reacted better. The girls had looked shocked and crushed by her reaction and she didn’t blame them.
She’d somehow managed to slap on a smile, put one foot in front of the other and get on the plane to London. Sitting on the tarmac at Glasgow, she was mortified to admit it, but she’d prayed the domestic flight would get delayed, cancelled, anything at all that would mean the second leg of the trip was off and they could just head for a London hotel and revert to her original hope of finding a way to get through the next few days with Colin by filling the hours with shows and wandering around the tourist spots.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t been that lucky. The Glasgow flight was on time and they’d sailed through Heathrow Terminal Five and made it in plenty of time for the second leg of their travels. Now they were soaring towards the end of their ten-hour flight to Vegas, sitting four abreast in the front row of premium economy. If this was any other trip, to anywhere else on earth, she’d be relishing the treat. The comfy chairs. The lovely meals. The regular top ups of her wine glass. She’d never flown premium economy in her life. They definitely hadn’t travelled this way last time they’d gone to Vegas. The cheapest economy seats. Right up the back. They’d been too excited to care that the wall behind them vibrated every time someone flushed the toilet. The very thought of that trip stirred up a whole juggernaut of emotions, and she slammed the door shut on them before they could enter and take up residence in her mind. There was not one single cell in her brain that wanted to relive any moment of her last visit to Vegas.
