Fear of Missing Out by Kate McGovern

Author:Kate McGovern
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

27.

Chloe and I spread the maps across the kitchen table. She printed them off Google and taped them together in eight-and-a-half-by-eleven sections. My mother surveys our work skeptically.

“Look, here’s the plan.” I point out the route marked in a meandering red line from Boston to Sedona, all 2,567 miles of it. “Chloe has it all worked out so we can do it over February vacation. It won’t take us that long. Like, three days each way if we do it straight. A day or two longer if we stop to sightsee. Don’t you want me to see the country while I still can?”

Mom frowns at the maps. “There’s not a closer facility for this … kind of thing? Really?”

I shake my head. “This is the one, Mom. This is where my body would be.” I see her flinch at the words. “Don’t you think I should see the real thing?”

“I do, Astrid, I do. It’s just a long trip for you. And a lot of time for me to take off work, too.”

I glance from Mom to Chloe and back. “Mom, see, I was thinking: you shouldn’t take off work for this.”

“If we fly, I might not have to.” She’s distracted now, tapping on her phone—probably checking flights. She makes a face. “Yikes. I guess Arizona is a popular destination in February.”

“Mom, listen. What if Chloe and Mo and I did the trip together?”

“You guys can come!” Mom says. “Sure. If your parents don’t mind.”

“No.” I sigh. “Mom, I mean, what if we did it as a friend trip? No parents. You wouldn’t have to miss any work.”

She lets out a sharp laugh.

“I’m serious. Don’t you want me to have, like, a typical teenage independent travel experience?”

“So you’re telling me your version of spring break is going to be a visit to a cryopreservation facility?”

“Technically, it’s winter break, but yes. I mean, I’m working with a narrow set of parameters here.”

“I also factored in some fun stops along the way, Maxine,” Chloe says, holding up The Top 50 Roadside Attractions. “So it’ll be less business-trip-to-see-body-freezers and more, like, tour-of-classic-Americana-with-friends-plus-confronting-your-mortality-along-the-way. Know what I mean?”

“That’s great, Chloe. Thanks,” Mom says dryly. She takes the book and thumbs through a few pages, an eyebrow cocked. “Astrid, I really don’t think it’s a good idea. What if something happens and you need emergency care? You’ll be so far from home, without me. I just … I can’t see it. Sorry.”

“Mom, Dr. Klein said she saw no medical reason why I shouldn’t go, remember? I think we can safely say a week on the road is not going to be the thing that kills me at this point. And if it is, lucky me.”

“Oh, Astrid.” Mom sighs audibly and stares at the maps. “How would you three even get there? We only have one car.”

“My moms already said we could borrow the Tomato,” Chloe pipes up. Chloe’s mothers drive Subaru Outbacks like all the other Cambridge Ladies, but their prized possession—fired up only for special

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