The Girl in Times Square Read Online Free PDF

laughing, and said, “Miera, you have to be more specific than that.”
    Lily laughed herself. “Andrew, I need no money. I need advice.”
    “I’m rich on that. I’ll even throw you a couple of bucks if you want.”
    His voice always made her smile. Her whole life it made her smile. “Can you see me for lunch this week?”
    “Can’t, Congress is in session. What’s up? I was going to call you myself. You won’t believe who’s staying with me.”
    “Where?”
    “In D.C.”
    “Who?”
    “Our father, Lil.”
    “What?”
    “Yup.”
    “He’s in D.C.? Why?”
    “Aren’t you the journalist’s daughter with the questions. Why, I don’t know. He left Maui with two big suitcases. I think he is thinking of un-retiring. His exact words? ‘No big deal, son. I’m just here to smooth out the transition for Greenberger who’s taking over for me.’”
    “Meaning…”
    “Meaning, I can’t take another day with your mother.”
    “Oh, Andrew, oh, dear.” Lily dug her nails into the palms of her hands. “No wonder Grandma bought me a ticket to go to Maui. She’s so cagey, that Grandma. She never comes out and tells me exactly what she wants. She is always busy manipulating.”
    “Yes, she wants you to do what she wants you to do but out of your own accord.”
    “Fat chance of that. When is Papi going back? I don’t want to go unless he’s there.”
    “You’ll be waiting your whole life. I don’t think he’s going back.”
    “Stop it.”
    “Where are you?”
    “I’m home, why?”
    “Are you…alone?”
    “Yes.” Lily lowered her voice. “What do you want to tell me?”
    “Are you sitting…listening?”
    “Yes.”
    “Go to Maui now, Liliput. I can’t believe I’m saying this. But you should go. Really. Get out of the city for a while.”
    “I can’t believe you’re saying this. I don’t see you going.”
    “I’d go if I weren’t swamped. Quartered first, but I’d go.”
    “Yes, exactly.”
    “Did I mention…gladly quartered?”
    After having a good chuckle, Andrew and Lily made a deal—he would work on their father in D.C. in between chairing the appropriations committee and filibustering bill 2740 on farm subsidies, and she would go and soothe their mother in between sunbathing and tearing her hair out.
    “Andrew, is it true what I heard from Amanda, are you running for the U.S. Senate seat in the fall?”
    “I’m thinking about it. I’m exploring my options, putting together a commission. Don’t want to do it if I can’t win.”
    “Oh, Andrew. What can I do? I’ll campaign for you again. Me and Amy.”
    “Oh, you girls will be too busy with your new lives to help me in the fall, leaving school, getting real jobs. But thanks anyway. I gotta go. I’ll call you in Maui. You want me to wire you some money?”
    “Yes, please. A thousand? I’ll pay you back.”
    “I’m sure. Is that why you keep buying lottery tickets every week? To pay me back?”
    “You know,” said Lily, “I’ve stopped buying those lottery tickets. I love you.”
    “Love you, too, kid.”

2
Hawaii
    Hawaii was not Poland. It was not the wetlands of northern Danzig, rainy, cold, swampy, mosquito-infested Danzig whence Allison had sprung during war. Hawaii was the anti-Poland. Two years ago Lily’s mother and father had gone on an investigative trip to Maui and came back at the end of a brief visit with a $200,000 condo. Apparently they learned everything they could about Maui in two weeks—how much they loved it, how beautiful it was, how clean, how quiet, how fresh the mangoes, how delicious the raw tuna, how warm the water, and how much they would enjoy their retirement there.
    Lily knew how her father was taking to his retirement, enjoying it now in his only son’s congressional apartment in the nation’s capital.
    How her mother was taking to Hawaii Lily also could not tell right away because her mother was not there to pick her up from Kahului airport. After she had waited a suitable