“C’mon, Mom!” she yelled back at Arden.
Arden slowly took off her shoes and sighed.
“I can’t be sandy for work,” she said, hesitating.
“Why not?”
Arden thought about it carefully before making her way over to her daughter.
“Impromptu beach day,” Lauren said, yanking her mother to the sand.
Arden looked at her daughter, and followed her gaze out over the lake. Though the sun was shining brightly and the temperatures were warming, the waters of the Great Lake were still chilly, and the differential between the water and the air created a ghostly mist that seemed to haunt the waves. Arden wished she could relax, but between work and financial obligations, she had too much on her mind. Her body was always tense, her mind a hummingbird. And now she was worried about her own mother.
“I haven’t shown you what Grandma sent me today, have I?” Lauren asked.
Lauren held up her wrist and jangled her charms. “A hot air balloon … for a life filled with adventure!”
Arden looked out over the lake and thought about her mother alone and so far from them. The Great Lake separated her from her mother, but it also connected them.
Lauren added, “I’m worried about Grandma. She’s getting so old, Mom.”
“Me, too,” Arden admitted. “It’s been awhile since we’ve gone to see her.”
“Then let’s have an adventure!” Lauren said suddenly, standing. “Let’s head up there for Memorial Day. What do you say?”
With each sentence, Lauren’s voice shot higher the more excited she became. “I miss her! I’ll finish finals, and you request vacation. I mean, they owe you. You haven’t taken a day off in years.”
Arden hesitated. “But what about your internship?”
“I’m talking a week or two off, Mom,” Lauren said. “Maybe head north the Sunday before Memorial weekend? Give ourselves a real break.”
“But I have so many things to do,” Arden said, thinking of Van and his veiled promise of a promotion. “How will they manage when I’m gone?”
“You deserve it, Mom. Let’s surprise Grandma!” Lauren stopped and shook her bracelet in her mother’s face. “Let’s be adventurous.”
Arden thought of the charm her mother had just sent her.
A mad hatter from the mad hatter.
The words from her mother’s note echoed in her head:
Remember, we all must go a little crazy sometimes to find our happiness.
That’s when some forgotten voice in the back of Arden’s head—one that sounded an awfully lot like her mother’s—overrode her logical one for the first time in a long time, and all she could say was, “Okay. Let’s do it.”
part two
The Dragonfly Charm
To a Life Filled with Good Fortune
Four
Main Street of Scoops, Michigan, looked like a live-action Currier & Ives portrait.
Arden watched as the little Victorian storefronts—filled with restaurants, coffee shops, clothing, jewelry, and handbag stores—drew in customers. Window boxes overflowing with petunias, marigolds, and begonias decorated every storefront.
“I forgot how quaint Main Street is,” Lauren said. “It’s just so … sweet, so quintessentially Norman Rockwell. Hey? Shouldn’t we call Grandma?”
“Let’s surprise her instead,” Arden suggested, sniffing the air, smelling the sweet smell of fudge. “I have this feeling…”
Arden let her voice trail off. She grabbed her daughter’s hand and led her down the narrow downtown streets canopied with white birch, sugar maples, and towering pines. An inland harbor—filled with bobbing boats, kayakers, and the last hand-cranked chain ferry in the United States—shimmered alongside Main Street, while in the distance they could see Lake Michigan and its towering dunes. It was a majestic backdrop.
They zipped through the bustling little downtown until they ran into resorters clotting the sidewalk outside Dolly’s Sweet Shop.
“Wow! I forgot about all the ‘fudgies,’” Arden said, using the nickname Michiganders called tourists who took over coastal resort towns from Memorial Day through Labor Day. “They’re like zombies. You just can’t get rid of them. And they arrive earlier and earlier every year.”
“Mother,” Lauren said, whacking her mother on the shoulder, and nodding toward Dolly’s nostalgic red storefront. “Ssshhh! You know why they’re here.”
“I do.”
Arden walked up and tapped on the large window etched with Dolly’s logo.
“Hi, Mom,” she called through the glass.
Lolly looked up from the copper urns at the sound of her daughter’s voice, her face changing from complete shock to total joy.