to travel the world, too, and they had a passion for it, but I love that you appreciate home. You know, I’m an old man and only have so much time left.”
Her grandfather had used that line on her before, and though it did fill her with guilt to think of being gone and something happening to him, her grandpa was in excellent health. She’d always known she’d one day settle back at home, but she’d been hoping it wouldn’t be quite so soon.
However, she might be coming home to a small town, but it was also near Seattle. It shouldn’t be too hard to find work. She had to earn money so she could focus on her true passion of saving the world. What was she going to do next, though? What could she do to make people care?
She sat there feeling uninspired. No matter how much she shouted at the top of her lungs, no one seemed to listen. That wasn’t a good place to go in her mind. If she gave up on herself she wouldn’t be able to convince anyone of anything. So what could she do?
What if she wrote a book? What if she turned an article into a work of fiction that would draw people in? What if she gave a story to these historic places? Would that make people care more?
She heard nothing of what her grandfather said as that idea popped into her brain. She’d authored many articles that had put money into her account, and sure, they didn’t get national attention, but they paid her bills. She knew how to put words on paper, and make them flow. How hard could it be to go from writing articles to writing an entire book? It seemed like an impossible feat, but she loved writing, and she more than loved research, so couldn’t she come up with a good enough story to make it novel length — to make people love a place as much as she did?
She wasn’t sure.
It was an intimidating thought. She wouldn’t be able to go months or a year without any income, so maybe she’d work a part time job, just enough to pay her bills while she worked on a great American Novel. What would she call it? What place would she write about? What would people be inspired by? She didn’t know where to begin.
“It’s been raining here a lot, but this is the wet season. Soon, it’ll be nothing but sunshine and summer breezes. I’m truly grateful not to live in a place that gets piles of snow all winter. Some of those towns don’t get unburied until June. Can you imagine how awful that would be? No way. I’m not interested,” her grandpa said.
Daisy wondered if her grandpa just needed someone to talk to. Maybe since it was the end of spring everyone was hunkering down. She should be more grateful she got to talk to her grandpa at all considering there were so many people in the world who didn’t have family left.
“Grandpa, I have to get off the phone. They’re starting to make announcements and I need to make sure I don’t miss this flight. We can talk for days when I get home,” Daisy said.
Her grandpa finally paused. She could hear the smile in his voice. “I can’t wait for you to get here, Sweet Pea. Stay safe and don’t go off with strangers. I know you have a long layover in San Francisco. I’ll worry about you.”
“I won’t go off with strangers. I promise,” Daisy said. She had to admit it was great to be loved so much.
After she hung up, she came back to her Siri question and pressed her button, then spoke. “Siri, how long would it take to say a sentence one million times?”
“Here’s what I found on the web,” Siri said back to her. Daisy clicked a link.
“Well, I guess it would take just over nineteen days without a break to count to a million, so I don’t think anyone is going to repeat a sentence one million times,” she muttered beneath her breath.” Why did she have to look up such strange facts? Maybe because that’s just who she was.
She sat back and the couple between her had begun to fight, so she decided if there wasn’t a seat, she’d stand for however long it took. She stood, then moved across the gate area where she spotted a quiet corner with a couple of vacant