Free Delayed by Daniela Reyes Page B

strange bout of early teen sass geared mostly at him. He didn’t mind it though; it was the better of two options.  
    “Yes. She’s pretty. Yes she was on my flight. We’re not dating. We talked because she remembered me. And she sends her regards.”  
    “That was easy,” Mimi said. “You could of just started with that.”  
    Nick pressed a hand against the window. “No more questions for the rest of the ride.”  
    “Tell her I say hi too. Next time you see her,” his sister said.  
    “I won’t see her again,” Nick said. That much he was sure about.  
    “You will,” Mimi said, with a strange amount of certainty. “You still have to give her back her keychain.”  

10

    December 25, 2006

    They hadn’t had time to find wrapping paper, and so for that Christmas, Olivia and her mom made a more practical choice: newspaper. There was already an abundance of it. Her mom worked as an editor for the local newspaper, and got stacks of it on a weekly basis.  
    “Can I guess what it is?” her mom asked, holding a square box that Olivia had carefully adorned with the comic section. She’d tried making a theme of it, matching each present with some familiar image on the outside, but she’d grown wary of it. The only present that matched the wrapping, were the oven mitts that her mom had already unwrapped.  
    “Okay. Guess,” she said. Her mom was a terrible guesser.  
    Her mom shook the box, twice, and a third time for dramatic effect. “Is sounds like jewelry. Did you spend money on some fancy necklace? You know I always end up losing…”  
    Olivia smiled. “Try again. Or just open it already.”  
    Her mom chose the first option. “Um. Hm. Is it a gift card?”  
    “Yes. It’s a gift card.” Olivia paused. “Just open it.”  
    “Okay. Fine. I give up.”  
    It took a second for her mom to rip through the newspaper. The box opened to reveal the gift that she had been planning for the better part of the year. Olivia had worked two part time jobs during the summer, and another during the first half of the school year. She’d saved all of it, and a few thousand more from her savings, for this one present.
    Her mom dropped the box, letting its contents hit the floor. “You didn’t.”  
    Olivia picked the box up again, placing the papers into her mom’s hands.  
    “Liv. How did you afford this?” she asked, holding a hand to her mouth. There were tears already forming in her eyes.  
    “That doesn’t matter,” Olivia said. “But you like it right? There’s still a bit of paperwork left to do, but everything else is sorted out. It should be enough for your first issue.”  
    Her mom was crying now. “How? How did you manage this?” She got up from her spot next to the tree and wrapped her arms around her daughter. The tears lasted for a while, but not as much as they once had. Happy tears were shorter than sad ones.  
    “The printing center is open year round. And the offices are available on a month-by-month basis. You just have to contact the landlord and let him know when you need them. You have three months of rent covered.” Olivia pointed to another spot on the document. “Also I didn’t know what you wanted to name it, or what kind of magazine you wanted to write, so that’s all still up to you.”  
    This was it; her mom’s life long dream, of owning her own magazine was finally in her hands.  
    “I can’t accept this,” her mom said. She still had eyes glued to the pages on pages of documents. “Liv. This is the best present you could have possibly given me,” she said.  
    “You can’t return it,” Olivia warned.  
    “I won’t. I mean, you know this is still a risk, there’s not guarantee it will be successful…”  
    “We all deserve one chance, mom,” she said. “I don’t care if you fail at this, which I know you won’t. But I just want you to try. You were looking for a job in Glensford anyways; this might be what you need.”