Ali's Well That Ends Well by Ali Wentworth

Author:Ali Wentworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

Deliverance

Like an obstinate oyster, the country had finally opened. Life seemed somewhat normal. Aside from everyone wearing a mask or a brawl breaking out if someone didn’t. That was not normal. But all in all, the landscape was starting to look familiar.

I have, for the past decade, gone away every weekend of my birthday. I look forward to it all year. Many of my friends will say, “You go away ALONE? On your BIRTHDAY?” Yes, I do. And I come back a better wife, mother, and human. I can sleep late without anyone nudging my foot for cash, wanting sex, needing to go out and pee . . . (insert kid, husband, and dog in any of these). I can breathe! I can actually think. You forget how we are constantly bombarded during the day! Mostly by texts.

And no, I’m not scared traveling solo. Even though the internet is filled with disturbing tales about single women being killed in resorts or out jogging or standing on a cliff taking selfies. But it’s always the husband. And by the way—why do they kill their wives? Why not divorce them? As much as the husbands fake plead and weep on the local news, they inevitably get caught and serve a life sentence. For what? Because they didn’t want her to receive alimony? Don’t put your wife in a wood chipper, call a lawyer.

Anyway, my birthday is in January. But since we were all in the throes of the pandemic, and my whole family lived in one bed like some Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory reboot directed by David Lynch, I did not go away on my annual birthday trip.

April was different. We could travel domestically. And if there was any year when I needed that weekend, it was 2021. I started Googling “middle-aged female solo trips.” The only results were a Sandals resort and a retirement village in Boca. As I surfed Expedia, one of my closest friends, Maggie, called and suggested we do a girls’ trip with another friend of ours, Bette. Everyone needed an escape. Mostly from teenagers. And we’d stay in a place with room service, where we didn’t have to make the bed. Or do laundry. And we’d talk to humans other than our families.

I love my women friends. I would run naked in a circle and howl under a full moon if anyone were game. One time they were. But that’s another book.

“Let’s go to the woods!” I declared even though I have a propensity toward water. I had heard about this retreat in the mountains of Tennessee. I had spent hours poring over their website’s gallery of hiking trails, close-up shots of berries, and lots of sage bundles. They claimed to have infused wellness. I love anything infused!

We reached the lodge after a full day of Covid-restricted airports and rental cars. I thought about the irony of when, in years past, I would see the occasional traveler wearing a mask and think, Oh, come on, isn’t that a little extreme? Turns out the joke was on me.

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