Hello There, We’ve Been Waiting for You!
LAURIE B. ARNOLD
Contents
To the real-life Madison for your sunny inspiration; and to Steve, my number one champion, and the best husband and story editor I could ever dream of
I didn’t know anything about the magic yet. I only knew my life would never be the same. It was the summer before sixth grade and there I was, a prisoner in the front seat of my grandmother’s sparkly gold Cadillac beast. She barreled at the speed of fear, north toward New Mexico on the dusty desert highway. We streaked past a blur of scrub brush and tumbleweeds. Compared to where I’d lived on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, it looked like I’d landed on the moon.
“Honey, this isn’t what either of us wished for, but I’m sure we’ll make the best of it.”
I stared out the passenger window trying not to cry as I watched a tumbleweed skitter across the sand.
“And who knows? We might even have ourselves a little fun. How’d you like to be transformed into a vision of beauty? I happen to be quite the expert.”
She shook her bouncy blond curls.
If she thought she was going to turn me into her clone, she had another think coming. I’m a soccer-player girl, not a dress-up girly-girl.
“Madison, darling, if you’re ignoring me because I picked you up a teensy bit late, you’ll have to get over it.”
A teensy bit late? She’d arrived at the El Paso Airport an hour and a half after my plane got in, looking as if she was trying to be some movie star hot-shot hiding behind giant dark sunglasses. She’d sashayed in on super-spiky red high heels, wearing a matching mini-skirt. With barely a “hello” she whisked me off to my brand new life.
“Will Grandpa Jack be at your house?” I asked.
“Not until Saturday. He only comes around two weekends a month—which is just enough for me. So until then it’ll be just us girls.”
I wished more than anything I could turn back time.
My grandmother took control of the steering wheel with her knees as she drew on fresh red lipstick. Then she cranked up the music on her car’s CD player. At the top of her lungs she sang along to “Dancing Queen” ten times straight.
The