Normal by Francine Pascal

Author:Francine Pascal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Miles of Green Grass

THE LIMOUSINE SPED NORTH.

Gaia could barely see out, because the windows were tinted glass. But she knew that they were back in her old neighborhood—the Upper East Side. She could see the tall stone apartment buildings along Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park, as the car smoothly hummed past them.

“I’m so glad you’re coming,” Chris said. “You’re going to love talking to my dad.”

“Well, thanks for the invite,” Gaia said.

The limousine was slowing down. It pulled up to the curb and stopped. Gaia saw a doorman hurrying over to open the door for them.

She got out first and looked around. It was nearly dark now, a beautiful New York night. The car had stopped on Fifth Avenue in front of a big, old-fashioned apartment building with a dark red awning. Looking up, she could see balconies stretching around the building’s upper floors, facing Central Park.

Liz and Chris hopped out of the limousine as if they’d been doing it all their lives—which, Gaia figured, they probably had. “Hi, Marko,” Chris said to the doorman. “Nice haircut.”

“Thank you, Mr. Rodke. Ms. Rodke.” The doorman nodded smoothly at them and then hurried ahead to open the building’s front door.

“You’ll have to forgive the apartment,” Liz told Gaia apologetically as they stood in the rising elevator. The elevator’s interior was polished mahogany. Chris had punched the button for the seventeenth floor, Gaia saw. “We’ve only been here like a week; there’s still construction going on.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Gaia joked. There was most definitely nothing to be ashamed of in this ridiculous building. The elevator arrived on seventeen, and the wide metal doors slid open.

Gaia went first. She stepped out into a small vestibule covered with striped wallpaper. As she walked forward, a big black apartment door swung open. A slim, elegantly dressed middle-aged woman stood there, smiling. She wore large gold earrings and a Chanel jacket. It was obvious from her face that she was Liz and Chris’s mother.

“You must be Gaia,” Mrs. Rodke said, extending her hand. “How do you do—I’m Blair Rodke.”

“Hi,” Gaia said, wondering if there was some whole batch of etiquette here that she knew nothing about. But Mrs. Rodke smiled warmly, so she figured she hadn’t done anything wrong yet.

“Hi, Mom,” Liz said, leaning to kiss Mrs. Rodke’s cheek.

Gaia had been in some fairly fancy places in her life. But there’d been nothing in her experience quite like the Rodke apartment. The word apartment didn’t really convey what it was like—the place was more like a mansion that had been lifted seventeen stories off the ground and placed atop a Manhattan apartment tower.

“Are we eating soon?” Chris asked his mother. “I’m starving.”

“Sure—not too long now,” Mrs. Rodke said. “Just a few minutes. Gaia, can I get you anything?”

“Oh, no, thanks,” Gaia said, fixating on the huge windows.

They were in an extremely spacious entryway with a marble floor. A glass table in the middle of the room held a shallow bowl of water with lilies floating in it.

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