Suddenly by Barbara Delinsky Page A

her how wonderful she was.
    She had been on cloud nine when the picture was taken in Nonny’s sitting room right before dinner. Right after dinner her parents had given her hugs and kisses, then, to her dismay, had left her standing at the parlor window while the car pulled away.
    Always before, Nonny had made gentle excuses for her daughter and son-in-law, using vague references to business, friends, or vacations, then counting on Paige’s brief attention span and similarly childlike perception of time to cover the lapses. This time she was more honest.
    “Your parents have what’s called wanderlust,” she had explained to Paige, who thirty-three years later remembered every word of that conversation. “They like to be moving, doing different things. They can’t be kept in any one place for long.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because they have a curiosity about new things, and it won’t go away. It keeps them traveling. Last year it was France. This year it will be Italy.”
    “But what about Chicago?” Paige had asked. Chicago seemed to her a huge place filled with plenty that was new and different. “If they were in Chicago, I could see them all the time.”
    Nonny had nodded sagely. “You’re right. But they’ve already explored Chicago. They did that when they were growing up, just like you are now. Sometimes when people get bigger, they have to go farther to satisfy that curiosity.”
    “None of my friends’ parents do that. They stay here. I want my parents here, too.”
    “I know you do, pumpkin,” Nonny had said, giving her a hug and holding her close. “But your parents are different from the others.”
    “They hate me.”
    “No, they don’t.”
    “They didn’t want to have me at all.”
    “That’s not true. You were their wedding gift to each other. They love you very much. But it’s them, they’re different.”
    “Why?”
    “Because your father doesn’t have to work, for one thing. His parents are very wealthy. He has all the money he needs, so he can buy you nice things and travel around with your mother.”
    “Why can’t I travel with them?”
    “Because you have to go to school. But they do take you places. Remember last year, when you all went to New York? You loved that.”
    Paige nodded. “But I got tired. I was happy to come home. Don’t they ever get tired?”
    “No. That’s one of the things that makes them different.”
    “What’s another thing?”
    “The curiosity I mentioned.”
    Paige’s child mind grouped curiosity with chicken pox. “But when will they get better?”
    Nonny had hugged her again. “They’re not sick. Some people say they have a fairy-tale life.”
    “Are they happy?”
    Only after a while, and with a reluctant smile, had Nonny said, “I suppose,” and thereby given Paige her first, full dose of reality. She had thought about her parents’ happiness long and hard, standing in the circle of Nonny’s protective arms, and finally, when there didn’t seem anything she could think of to soften the blow, she had simply started to cry.
    “Oh, pumpkin,” Nonny crooned.
    “But I tried so hard . I didn’t spill anything, or bite my fingernails—and I took the littlest piece of cake and gave them the biggest—I thought I was so good .”
    “You were, you were. You’re always good, pumpkin. You’re the best little girl in all of Illinois, in all of the United States, in all of the world, but that has nothing to do with why your parents can’t stay put. They have money and curiosity, and so much energy that they just keep going.”
    “But what about me? ” Paige wailed, at which point Nonny had swung her up on her lap, and held her tight.
    “You are mine, is what you are,” she had said with a fierceness Paige had never forgotten. “You’re the one who won’t get away.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means that you’re different from your mommy. She never let me hold her like this. She had too much energy even back then. She was