Edwina untied the scarf around her neck. “It’s a lot warmer down here than back home.”
“It’s expected to hit the mid-fifties today.”
Edwina unzipped her coat. “I sweated all the way down. It’s probably hot flashes.”
Cherie glanced at her mother as they walked out of the terminal. “You’re menopausal?”
“I have been for a couple of years. The last time I had a flow was a month after I turned fifty.”
“Have you seen a gynecologist?”
“Yes.”
Cherie wanted to ask her mother if she went for her annual checkups, but then decided to wait until Edwina was open to discuss things and events they would’ve been talking about all along if they’d kept in touch with each other.
“I see that you changed your plates,” Edwina said after she was seated in the SUV.
Fastening her seat belt, Cherie tapped theSTARTbutton. “I’m now a legal resident of North Carolina.”
“Do you like living here?”
“I love it, Mama. No rush, no stress.”
Edwina settled back on the leather seat. “My grandmother left the South to escape Jim Crow and for better employment opportunities. Fast-forward ninety years, and her great-granddaughter makes the reverse migration.”
Cherie heard an emotion in her mother’s voice that sounded like regret. “It’s a different time, Mama. It’s by choice that I decided to move here, not because I was forced to.”
“I know that. I’m not begrudging you for wanting to make changes in your life. In fact, I’m a little jealous of you because I should’ve done the same after David and Daniel left home.”
Cherie pressed her lips together to keep from grinning like a Cheshire cat. Hearing Edwina talk about changing her life meant there was the possibility she would consider moving. “You’re still a young woman, Mama, and weren’t you talking about going to college?”
“Yes.”
“I intend to start grad school next spring, so what if we do it together? You can study for the SAT and then apply to different colleges for an online degree.”
Edwina nodded. “That’s something for me to think about.”
“Don’t think too long, Mama. What you have to do is set a goal.”
“Yeah. That I’d like to graduate college before I turn sixty, then become a nurse.”
Cherie accelerated into the flow of traffic and followed the signs that would take her to Wrightsville Beach and then south to Coates Island. “I never heard you talk about nursing.”
Edwina took off her knitted hat. “I’ve always wanted to be a nurse.”
She gave her mother a quick glance before returning her attention to the road. “You cut your hair.” The salt and pepper pixie cut hugged her head.
“Do you like it?”
“I love it, Mama. It makes you look like a young girl.”
“Not quite. I thought about dying my hair, then changed my mind, because I tell everyone that I’ve earned these grays.”
“The gray looks like highlights, and it goes well with your complexion.”
“Your hair is longer than it has been in years, Cherie.”
She fluffed up the loose curls on her nape. Edwina hadn’t known she’d let her hair grow to her shoulders during her pregnancy; after she had the baby, she instructed her stylist to cut off the curls that once were her signature look.
