Marie climbed into the convertible and fastened her seat belt.
Lillie gripped the steering wheel tightly, throwing back her head. "I have to tell you, I'm really getting into this Twenty Wishes thing."
"I am, too," Anne Marie said. "When you phoned I was in the middle of making a scrapbook, a page for each wish. I'm going to cut out magazine pictures to visualize them and to document the various steps."
Lillie turned to smile at her. "What a great idea."
The praise encouraged her and Anne Marie quickly went on to describe the craft-store supplies she'd purchased. "I don't have much of a list as yet, but I'm working on it. How about you?"
Lillie was silent for a moment. "I've decided I want to fall in love." She spoke with a determination Anne Marie had never heard from her.
"Barbie said the same thing at our Valentine's party," Anne Marie pointed out.
"I know."
Anne Marie waited.
"I've had plenty of men ask me out," Lillie told her. "I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I'm not interested in most of them."
Anne Marie nodded, not surprised that "plenty of men" would find Lillie attractive.
"I've learned a thing or two in the last sixty-odd years," Lillie was saying, "and I'm not as impressed with riches or connections as I once was. When I fall in love, I want it to be with a man of integrity. Someone who's decent and kind and - " She paused as though searching for the right word. "Honorable. I want to fall in love with an honorable man." She seemed embarrassed at having spoken her wish aloud, and leaned forward to start the engine. "As you might've guessed, my marriage - unlike my daughter's - wasn't a particularly good one. I don't want to repeat the mistakes I made when I was younger." The car roared to life, then purred with the sound of a flawlessly tuned engine.
Checking behind her, Lillie backed out of the parking space on Blossom Street. From there they headed toward the freeway on-ramp. Lillie proposed a drive through the Kent Valley and along the Green River, and Anne Marie agreed.
Closing her eyes, Anne Marie let the cold February wind sweep past her. Lillie turned on the radio just as the DJ announced a hit from the late 1960s. Soon she was crooning along to The Lovin' Spoonful's "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind." Anne Marie remembered her mother singing that song as a girl. Perhaps it was unusual to find herself good friends with a woman who was her mother's contemporary. Sadly, although Anne Marie was an only child, she and her mother weren't close. Her parents had divorced when she was in sixth grade, and the bitterness, especially on her mother's part, had lingered through the years. It didn't help that Anne Marie resembled her father. She'd had little contact with him after the divorce, and he died in a boating accident on Lake Washington when she was twenty-five. Her mother had never remarried.
Because they had such an uneasy relationship, Anne Marie avoided frequent visits home. She made a point of calling her mother at least once a month. Even then, it seemed they didn't have much to discuss. Sad as it was to admit, Anne Marie had more in common with Lillie than she did with her own mother.
As Lillie's voice grew louder, Anne Marie stayed quiet, afraid that if she attempted to sing she'd embarrass herself. After about twenty minutes, Lillie exited the freeway and drove toward the road that ran beside the banks of the Green River.
This was about as perfect a moment as Anne Marie could remember since Robert's death. They had the road to themselves. The sun was on her face and the wind tossed her hair in every direction and she couldn't have cared less.
Lillie, however, had wrapped a silk scarf over her elegantly arranged hair, which held it neatly in place.
Darting around the twisting country roads, Lillie revealed her skill as a driver. Then, in the middle of a sharp turn, she let out a small cry of alarm.
"What's wrong?" Anne Marie was instantly on edge. She grasped the passenger door as Lillie struggled to control the vehicle.
"The steering wheel," she gasped. She pulled the car over to the side of the road and cut the engine. She looked wide-eyed at Anne Marie. "There's something wrong with the steering."
"This is a brand-new car!"
"You don't need to remind me," Lillie said through clenched teeth. She opened