Grace

I am learning about Harmony speaking with her on the phone. I learn she wants to go into politics. That by the time she is thirty she has goals of being a senator from her state. That she wants to go to law school. That she is driven. That she is a sophomore taking almost all AP classes. That she is a hard core liberal. That she is in orchestra, and, like my sister Beth, plays the cello. That ironically her cello has the same name of my late-great Grandmother, the middle name of my sister, the name Grace.

 

She laughs when I tell her the story of the time that I broke Beth’s cello while wrestling in the living room with my youngest sister Jenn.

That she was in what by high school standards constitutes a fairly seriously relationship with someone who goes to a high school somewhere in Washington state yet not in Spokane. That she is heavily involved in girl scouts. That she has a younger brother who is only a year younger who goes by the moniker of Bud. That her mother pretty much had to work all hours of the day to raise her. That she is a catholic and even went to Mass on Sunday morning before our tour of London.

That she hates her father and would rather not discuss him at this time, thank you very much insinuating only that he is like way behind on back child support payments. That she once went to the state capital in Olympia and shadowed under her district representative. That her birthday is Nov. 5^th which n England  is some sort of holiday called Guy Fawkes day. That she is almost exactly eight months older than I am. That she already has her drivers’ license although she doesn’t really drive. That her paper route is more of a financial obligation for her family.

 

 

That she works at Dairy Queen on the weekends and can make a mean blizzard siphoning all of the funds for a potential college.

 

That she is ambitious as shit.

That she won the contest in a way similar the way in which I won only she didn’t have to give a speech. She had to meet with the editorial staff of the Spokane Spokesman and that she nailed the interview but was still pleasantly surprised when she returned home and received the phone call informing her that she had won.

That that was really gallant and cavalier think I did offering to scrub her coat like that. That she loves everything about the trip, the people,  the architecture and, of yes, the sometimes despicable  food.

That this trip has been everything she somehow hoped and dreamed it would be.

That tonight she feels like she can stay on the phone forever.