Time to Fly Read Online Free Page A

down?”
    â€œWhy?” I ask.
    â€œSit down!” she orders, sounding as if she’s bursting with news.
    â€œWhat, Mom? What?”
    â€œZoe—you can come home !”
    Now I sit down. Actually, I stumble into a kitchen chair. “Home? We’re going back to New York?”
    At the sink, Maggie stares at me. She waves her arms at me and mouths, What? What?!
    â€œI have a job!” Mom squeals into the phone. I hold the receiver out and rub my ear.
    â€œWow! I heard that!” Maggie says. She comes over and sticks her head next to the receiver, trying to listen in. I wave her away.
    â€œI’m going prime time!” Mom announces proudly.
    When I don’t say anything, she adds, “I got the part!”
    â€œWhat part?”
    Mom laughs. “Honey, the part I…Zoe, I’m sure I wrote you about it. Didn’t I? It’s the lead female role on a new series they’re shooting for next fall. I’ll be playing a surgeon!”
    Maybe she did mention this part. But I’ve been hearing this for a year—there have been so many auditions and promises—and everything always seems to fall through. So I’ve learned not to get my hopes up.
    â€œWhen’s the callback?” I ask.
    â€œSweetheart, it’s a done deal. I’ve already got a contract!”
    She sounds so thrilled, I start to get excited, too. My mother on prime-time TV!
    â€œBut—what about movies?” I sputter.
    Mom laughs. “One thing at a time, sweetie. Just you wait, I’m on my way now. This is the big time, what I’ve been working for all these years.”
    â€œOh, Mom, really?” I say, almost afraid to believe it. “There’s no catch? You’re not leaving something out?”
    Something jingles across the phone lines.
    I hazard a guess: “Uh, pocket change? You’re working as a mime on the streets of L.A.?”
    Mom laughs. “Oh, Zoe, don’t be silly. It’s keys!”
    â€œKeys?”
    â€œAs in house keys. The keys to the house I just bought!”
    â€œYou bought a house ?” I should be ecstatic. I should be screaming and jumping up and down. This is what I’ve been dreaming about for almost a year. Me and Mom—together. But instead I feel like I just got the wind knocked out of me.
    When she left me at Gran’s last summer, I felt like an unwanted kitten abandoned on a doorstep. And ever since, my heart’s been on a roller-coaster ride. Every time Mom builds me up with her promises, things always seem to come crashing down. And now, just when I’ve finally started to feel at home here, out of the blue she tells me she’s bought us a house.
    A home? In Southern California ?
    Tears spring to my eyes out of nowhere. Maggie looks at me in alarm. I shake my head at her, as if to insist I’m OK.
    â€œWell, it’s not a new house, actually,” Mom says with a laugh. “And it’s not huge, but it’s adorable, Zoe—just perfect for the two of us. Like one of the pictures you used to draw when you were little.”
    She remembers that? When I was little, Mom did all kinds of odd jobs while she was trying to get work as an actress, and we lived in a small fifth-floor walk-up apartment. At night she used to snuggle in bed with me and read me fairy tales. Then we’d talk about the little house we were going to live in one day. And sometimes I’d draw pictures of it, complete with a picket fence and a backyard with flowers and a dog. After she landed the role on the soap opera, we moved into a fancy high-rise with a doorman, and I guess I forgot about my pictures and our little fantasy home.
    But apparently this house is no fantasy.
    â€œIt’s got high ceilings and a front porch and a sweet little garden in the back,” Mom continues, “so we can grow flowers and vegetables—”
    Excuse me, vegetables? Mom’s planning to grow vegetables ?