Read Souvenir for Free Online Page A

gate.”
    “So basically I’d be tracked like a convict.”
    Her mom laughed. “No, you’re old enough to go on your own; the program’s for younger kids. Do you know, I heard on the radio not long ago that Atlanta has the busiest airport in the world? I always thought it would be New York—but they’re not even in the top ten! I think O’Hare was the second busiest, and then Heathrow…”
    Savannah listened with half attention while thinking of how to buy a ticket to Miami. Her mom was always taking the long way through explanations, which used to delight her but now often felt unnecessary. Sometimes she wanted to say,
Just get to it already.
She never did though, maybe because a small part of her still liked seeing her mom as an all-knowing authority. Maybe because she knew that asking questions was a good way to get and hold her mom’s attention—not that she wanted so much of it anymore. She didn’t. She wanted her own life, a life where she fit, a life where no gung-ho dads looked down on low-money career aspirations. A life where she was important to the people around her. To Kyle, maybe. With her Grandma Anna gone now, most of the time she felt invisible. And that was on a good day.
    Her mom was still talking. “Well, I know Aunt Beth would love to have you, no question. She could tour you around Berkeley, introduce you to some of the other professors—you really should apply there, you’d be a shoo-in. I’m so pleased that you want to spend time with her. What a nice idea!”
    Savannah nodded. She probably would enjoy going, though she hadn’t thought about it one way or the other until this minute. And attending Berkeley for its environmental science program was a possibility, if she wanted to work for the manatees through politics and policy. Right now, though, all she cared about was whether she could hop a plane to Miami with nothing more than a ticket and ID. From the sound of it, she could.
    “I’ll talk to Beth,” her mom said, “and if you think you might want to go to Singapore, I should get that arranged before too much longer.”
    “I’ll think about it.” She was impatient now to be alone so she could get online and look into airline schedules. She gave a smile that was meant to encourage her mom to move along. “So…good night,” she said.
    “Oh. Okay then.” Her mom stood, smiling back in a way that made Savannah fear she’d been too abrupt. Again. She never
meant
to be rude; things just came out that way.
    She watched her mom walk to the door, then turn and look at her.
    “Honey?”
    “Yeah?”
    “This weekend, let’s have that chat about birth control I’m sure you’ve been dreading.” Before Savannah could answer, she was gone down the hallway.
    Savannah sat as if frozen, though her face was ablaze. Did her mom suspect something? An impulse to forget the whole Miami idea swelled inside her, but then she thought of Kyle, brought that image of him on the dock to mind, and the impulse subsided. It had to be the fact of her sixteenth birthday coming up that provoked her mom’s suggestion. Knowing her mom, the birth-control chat had been scheduled since the moment she heard “It’s a girl!”
    Suppose during this chat she just up and told her mom that she wanted to go on the pill? Suppose she said she had a boyfriend and they were considering having sex. Right—that would go over well. Going from having had no real boyfriend ever, to the announcement of having not only a boyfriend but also a sexual relationship with the guy…it just wouldn’t work, even if she wanted to tell her about Kyle—which she didn’t. Couldn’t. He was definitely
not
who her parents would have in mind for her, not by, oh, six or seven years and, in her dad’s case, several shades of skin color.
    So no birth control pills for her, not just now. But as soon as she got a chance, she’d pop in to Wal-Mart or someplace where she could be anonymous, to buy a box of condoms. It was no big