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but imagined he must be pretty upset.
    "Eighteen already!" her mom broke the silence. "I can't believe my baby graduated and is off to college next year. You're going to do fine. You've always been an excellent student."
    A true statement, but she was still scared. She wished she had the chance to compete in academic competitions, or add to her roster of extracurricular activities. Lucy's constant warnings of not to join those things kept her away. Though she wasn't valedictorian of her graduating class, she wore many honor sashes with her gown. Jennifer Schumacher held the title.
    Her mom laughed. "What's so funny?" Beth inquired.
    She took a left onto Washington Avenue, which was considered "downtown." Only a few blocks long, it boasted many mom and pop shops. Knitters Korner, Bob's Trading Cards, the Old Fashioned Ice Cream Shoppe, along with multiple businesses like insurance or tax help. On the weekends, the sidewalks filled with people. "Remember when you were little and played school all the time? You'd come home from school and still want to be there! You'd play when your friends came over, and you always insisted they be your students and you their teacher." She stopped at a traffic light, the first of only two on the small strip of town. "All these years later, that's what you'll do." She gripped her hands on the steering wheel. "I'm so proud of you."
    Beth looked over at her, who stared at the red light. "Thank you, Mom. That means a lot."
    Her eyes remained focused on the signal. She didn't move when it changed to green.
    "Mom?" Beth tried to break her from her trance. "The light's green. You can go."
    "What?" she asked, turning her attention back to Beth. "Oh yeah, it is." She pressed her foot on the gas and began down the road.
    "Mom, are you okay?"
    She glanced at Beth, returning her focus to the roadway. "What? Yes, yes, I'm fine. I just forgot where we were going." She kept driving, appearing unsettled. Flicking her head from left to right, tightening her grip more on the wheel. They approached a parking lot for a paint store to turn around.
    She remained focused on her mother, capturing the details on her face. The smile had dropped, her lips tight with concern. Beth never before noticed the creases spreading from her eyes. "Are you sure you're okay? That was weird."
    "It was only a quick lapse of memory." She slowed as she reached a driveway. "I'm fine. I have a lot on my mind."
    The migraines had worsened over the past year. Her mom suffered from a headache almost every day. She insisted her brain was cluttered with so many thoughts, the claustrophobia in her brain caused the pain. Beth researched migraines a little on the Internet. They seemed common, but she feared more as the words "neurological" and "stroke" often jumped off the page at her, slamming her in the face like a brick. She paged through forum after forum, each person describing symptoms and everyone jumping on the bandwagon with a different diagnosis. One day her mom caught her sifting over information and tried to assure her she was fine. Beth hoped it was true.
    They pulled into a small lot. "The nail shop is over here on the right." Opening her car door, she urged, "Come on, now, let's go get pretty!" Maybe the special ladies' day was a good idea. If something were wrong with her mom, she'd never forgive herself for not spending enough time with her.
    The morning began at Ann's Nails, a little shop owned by Ann Murphy, a friend of her mom's since high school.
    "Welcome!" Ann greeted them as they walked in the door. She immediately grabbed both Beth's hands. "This must be the birthday girl!"
    Ann, a spunky, tiny lady radiated an orange glow from over tanning. Spiky gray hair stood from her head, and large hoop earrings hung, apparently forgetting they went out of style more than a decade (or even two) ago.
    "It's so nice to finally meet you, Beth! Imagine I've known your mother your entire life and this is the first time I've met you! Isn't