Page 1 of Kiss Across the Universe
Chapter One
Alannah hadn’t realized how noisya Hollywood party could get, not until now, when she needed peace and quiet.
“What did you say?” Alannah repeated into her phone, bringing her other hand up to cover her other ear. She moved around to the other side of the pool cabana, and tucked herself up against the siding to eliminate some of the volume, but it didn’t seem to do any good. The splash of people doing cannonballs into the pool, most of them either fully clothed or completely naked, along with their raucous laughter and shouting, was drowning out her mother’s voice.
“Say that again, Mom.” Alannah spoke forcefully into the phone. If Alannah couldn’t hear her mother, it was a good bet that her mother couldn’t hear Alannah over the noise, either.
Taylor spoke just as loudly. “I said, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving next Sunday. Turkey and all the fixings. You should come. We haven’t seen you for weeks and weeks.”
A shriek accompanied her mother’s pronouncement, making Alannah start. Then a loud splash, followed by clapping and laughter. Someone had just gone swimming who hadn’t wanted to.
“Thanksgiving, Mom?” Alannah repeated, bewildered. “It’s barely October!”
“That’s when Canadians have Thanksgiving,” Taylor replied smoothly. “The second Monday in October. But most people have their dinners on the Sunday.”
Alannah shook her head. “I’ll be there forourThanksgiving.” It was way too early in the year to be thinking about shopping and Christmas gifts, which was what Thanksgiving always triggered for her.
For a moment, her mother didn’t respond.
“Mom?” Alannah nudged, wondering if she’d missed her mother’s response, as the noise from around the corner of the cabana seemed to be getting louder.
“We won’t be doing Thanksgiving in November,” Taylor said.
Alannah wasn’t certain, but she thought there was a note of apology in her mother’s voice.
“Notdoing Thanksgiving? Mom…!”
“We don’t live in the United States,” Taylor said. “We live in Canada. And Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October.”
“But you’re American!”
“I was,” Taylor agreed. “And we kept our identities when we moved here, but that’s not always going to be the case, Alannah. Soon or later, we’ll have to move onto the next life, and that will mean becoming whatever nationality and race the new identities give us. And if that new identity dictates Thanksgiving in April, then that’s when we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving.”
Alannah squeezed the phone, her heart thudding. Words eluded her.
Not that she was surprised. This facet of her parents’ existence had been discussed many times, behind carefully closed doors. She had been aware of the differences between her family and normal people all her life.
But this was the first time those differences had impacted her in a way that marked an ugly fact: Sooner or later, her parents would move onto a life that didn’t include her.
It was already happening. Thanksgiving in October instead of November wasn’t earth shattering, but it wasdifferent. It was an unsettling change. It upset traditions and customs she hadn’t realized she liked as much as she did, until now.
“So, you’ll come next Sunday, Alannah?” her mother added, her voice light, as if Alannah’s agreement was already in the bag.
Which it was. How could she say no? If she couldn’t have the Thanksgiving she wanted, she’d take the one offered. Besides, there were always orphans and loners in Hollywood, who either got together for their own Thanksgiving in November, or were invited to others’. She might yet have her Turkey Thursday. Only it wouldn’t be the same….
Alannah choked off that unpleasant thought. “I’ll be there,” she told her mother woodenly.
“What was that? The noise…!”
“I’ll come for Thanksgiving on Sunday,” Alannah said, raising her voice.
“Good. Great. Bring a pie, ‘lannah. Love you!”
“Bye,” Alannah got out. Then her mother was gone. She put her phone back in the pocket of the light jacket she was wearing. It was October, after all. In Canada, they probably had snow already, while it was sixty degrees here. But after years of living in L.A., Alannah found even sixty degrees cold. No wonder the swimmers in the pool kept moving about. They were staying warm.
She moved out around the cabana and the noise leapt in volume. Most of the lounges were occupied, many of them with two people. A dozen or more people were moving about the edge of the big lagoon-like pool clutching blankets around their shoulders.
Whose idea had it been to jump into the water in the first place and had started the lemming-like migration into the water? Whoever it was, they must surely have been drunk or high. Or both.
