Message from Nam by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online Page A

interesting things about UC, and she could hardly wait to see California.
    She had sent a trunk and two duffel bags ahead, and her brother took her single valise out of the trunk and handed it to a skycap. He then handed Paxton the baggage check, and ushered the two women inside to find the right gate, and wait for Paxton’s plane to Oakland.
    “I suppose the weather will be pleasant there,” her mother said in a strained voice, and Paxton nodded. She looked at her mother then, and tears filled her eyes. It had been a very emotional morning. Even leaving her room at home had brought tears to her eyes, and she had spent a few minutes in her father’s old den at six o’clock that morning. She had sat across from his desk, still seeing him there, and told him what had happened in a low, audible whisper.
    “I didn’t get into Harvard, Dad …” It was a confession she somehow imagined he already knew. “… But I’m going to Berkeley.” And she hoped he’d be pleased. She was sad to leave home in a way, sad to leave the people and places that were familiar. But she also knew that, unlike the others, she took her father with her everywhere. He was a part of her now, just as he was a part of the morning sky, and the sunsets she loved to watch when she borrowed the car and drove to the ocean. He was part of everything she did, and was. She would never lose him.
    “Mom.” She cleared her throat as they waited for the plane. “I’m sorry … about Sweet Briar, I mean.… I’m sorry if I hurt you.” The directness of her words took her mother aback for a moment and it was obvious that she didn’t know what to answer. She almost stepped back and recoiled from her daughter, but what she was really recoiling from was the sincerity of the emotion, the intimacy that had always threatened her, and which was so much a part of Paxton. “I’m sorry … I just wanted to tell you that before I left.” She had learned something early in life, that you didn’t leave things unsaid with people you cared about, because you never knew if you would ever have another chance to say them. It was a lesson she had learned too early and too dearly.
    “I … uh …” Her mother spluttered on her own words. “… It’s alright. Maybe this will work out for you, Paxton. You can always transfer next year, if it doesn’t.” It was an enormous concession for her, and Paxton was grateful that she had given in that much. She hated to leave them on bad terms, and even George didn’t look quite as annoyed as he kissed her good-bye and warned her to behave herself in California, but he knew she would. She was a good girl basically, even if she was a little headstrong. And considering what other kids her age were up to these days, she hadn’t really caused their mother too much trouble.
    They both waved to her as she boarded the plane, and she left feeling relieved and free of them. It was only Queenie she missed as the plane took off and circled slowly over Savannah. It was a town she knew she wouldn’t miss, and in any case, she knew she was coming back for Christmas. Many of her friends were going away too. They were going to universities all over the South, only two had chosen to go to college in the North, and she was the only one going to California. And she leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes as the plane flew west toward California.
    It was only noon in California when they arrived, with the time change, and it was a gloriously sunny day as Paxton stepped off the plane and looked around her. The airport was small and most people seemed to be dressed in T-shirts and jeans, or flowered shirts, and a lot of the women were wearing miniskirts or cool-looking tie-dyed gauzy dresses. Everyone had long hair, and she felt instantly at home as she picked up her valise at the baggage claim and walked outside to hail a cab, feeling fiercely independent.
    The driver told her everything he thought she should know, about the best