Passports and Plum Blossoms

by Barbara Oliverio

  “What are you ladies going to do with your time?” asked the desk attendant, who somehow managed to maintain her composure as passengers with varying degrees of calm lined up before her.

  “We’re not sure yet,” I shrugged. “But whatever it is, I’m thinking it will be fun.”

  “That’s the spirit!” she said as she made a small notation on our voucher. “Have dinner at this restaurant, and tell them I sent you. They’re based in Denver, but the one here is really great. And get the tiramisu!”

  I looked down at what she had written as we walked away.

  “Nonna’s Italian Restaurant? Sounds good. Plus I’m always in for some good tiramisu. Have you ever been to San Francisco, Auntie Lil?” I asked.

  “Many years ago,” she answered, “but I’m sure there are so many new things to see and do now.”

  We reached baggage claim, and I searched the carousel area for Sister Mary Grace. When I caught sight of her bright strawberry-blonde curls, she was in a spirited conversation with a man whose ponytailed hair was a perfect color match for her own. She saw us, pointed, and waved us toward them. He turned, and his face split into a friendly grin. He was tall and lanky, dressed in jeans topped with a forest-green fleece vest casually fitted over a coordinating checked oxford. His eyes matched her grass-green ones.

  “This is my brother, Breccan,” Sister Mary Grace said, “but we call him Breck. And Breck, this is Annalise and Miss Fontana.”

  “Breccan is a very apt name,” said Auntie Lil.

  I looked at her, puzzled.

  “It’s from the Irish for ‘freckled,’” she explained. Breck’s freckles were indeed evident across his cheeks and nose.

  “Never try to beat my aunt in a game of Trivia,” I laughed.

  “I guess I won’t,” he grinned back. “Pleased to meet you, Annalise, and you, Miss Fontana.”

  “Oh, no, I’m Auntie Lil.” She ignored his outstretched hand ready for a handshake and pulled him in for a hug.

  “Auntie Lil it is, then.”

  Breck turned to his sister.

  “Okay, sis, now explain to me exactly what is happening here?”

  “Well, as soon as my bag appears, you are going to drive me to the convent as planned, then you’ll take these ladies on a tour of the city while they wait for their flight.”

  She went on to explain the reason for our extended layover, and he nodded through the story.

  “That is, if it’s not a bother to you,” I cut in.

  He turned to me.

  “Well ... I did have some very important plans to attend to.”

  My heart sank.

  “I’m kidding,” he smiled. “The rest of my day was going to consist of cleaning my apartment, which I am only too happy to delay, and maybe catching a movie. I’d be delighted to change all of that to show you the town.”

  I looked up at him and could see that he was sincere.

  Well. I guess there could be worse things to do while waiting for a plane than spending time with a charming man!

  Chapter Nine

  The four of us were chatting happily as we made our way to the parking garage when it dawned on me that I needed to make a very important phone call.

  “What is it?” Auntie Lil asked as I quickly pulled my phone from my bag and hit speed dial.

  “You know that Ma is timing this trip to the second and will be waiting for my call when we reach Singapore. I need to let her know about this delay—hi, Ma.” I broke off as my mother answered breathlessly.

  “Annalise! What’s wrong?”

  “What makes you think something’s wrong, Ma?” I walked away from our group so that I could have this conversation in private. “We just landed for our layover in San Francisco.”

  “A mother knows these things, young lady. So what is it?”

  I took a deep breath and explained the flight delay to her.

  “Hmm, so what will you do for so many hours? Is there somewhere you can relax and somewhere to eat?”

  Trust my mother to think of food.

  “We’re actually leaving the airport to tour the city for a while.”

  I let her know about our impromptu tour guide and held my breath in anticipation of her response. She did not disappoint.

  “A stranger! You girls can’t trust a stranger!”

  Girls?

  “Ma, Auntie Lil is twenty years older than you, and I’m an adult, too, remember. Besides, this is the brother of a nun.”

  Maybe playing the nun card would help.

  It didn’t.

  “Just because she has taken vows doesn’t mean he has. You don’t know anything about him.”

  I knew my mother well enough to let her blow off steam for a moment or two, then she would calm down. I turned to the group and raised my finger to indicate one more moment, then turned back while I listened. Finally, Ma took a breath and stopped.

  “Oh, Annalise, I’m sorry. I trust you to make good decisions. After all, you’re going all the way across the world.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You just be careful.”

  “We will.”

  “I love you. Call me when you get back on the plane.”

  “We will.”

  “And make sure you eat!”

  “Of course,” I giggled.

  I returned my phone to my bag, straightened my shoulders, and returned to the group. Being the daughter of loving, protective parents is not a job for sissies.

  “Okay,” I said as we continued on our way to the parking lot.

  “How’s your mother?” asked Auntie Lil.

  “Ma is Ma,” I said.

  “No further explanation necessary,” she laughed.

  ”Do you ladies have any idea about where you would like to visit in this brief time?” Breck asked as he loaded his sister’s bag into the back of a rugged jeep. He noted our dubious expressions as we took in the car that seemed more suited to backcountry touring than city touring.

  “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll not go off-roading today,” he assured us. “That is, unless you want to?”

  “Oh, stop it, Breck!” his sister swatted him in a familiar sisterly way on his shoulder. “You know they will want to see the city. Besides, these women are from Colorado. They can go off-roading every day if they want to.”

  Auntie Lil and I both burst into laughter.

  “What?” The siblings looked at us in confusion.

  “Oh, you obviously have just met Annalise,” said Auntie Lil. “She is a city girl through and through.”

  “Seriously?” Breck looked confused. “But you live in Colorado, the home of hikers, bikers, skiers—”

  “Readers, cooks, dancers, singers,” I continued. “You know, we’re all different people out there.”

  “All those mountains and you don’t climb one?” asked Sister Mary Grace.

  “She wouldn’t climb one unless there was a mall at the top of it,” said Auntie Lil as we piled into Breck’s jeep and pulled away.

  “Hmm. Well then, we will keep our touring on the light side of active today. But we might need to work on changing that activity level at some point,” said Breck as he caught my eye in the rearview mirror and winked.

  A shiver ran through me. Was he flirting with me? Stop it, Annalise. He was a nice, amiable man who was just doing his sister a favor. He probably had a tall, stunning mountain biker of a girlfriend who did commercials for Kashi granola bars.

  “Well, a visit to San Francisco isn’t complete without a trip to Ghirardelli Square for chocolate, so you’ll have to include that,” began Sister Mary Grace. “I know you can get the famous chocolate candy all over the country now, but there is something fun about having a sundae at the shop.”

  “I’m always in for chocolate,” Auntie Lil nodded. “Before that, though, I would like to see a few things if we have time.”

  “Name it,” said Breck.

  “I’d like to see Lombard Street,” she requested as she imitated the twists
and turns of the iconic street with her hand.

  “That’s not very far from the convent, so that can be our first stop,” said Breck. “Then what?”

  “Wait. Let me make a list.” I pulled my iPhone out of my bag and opened my note-taking app.

  “Are you always this organized?” asked Breck.

  “Uh ... yeah.” My fingers flew as I created an outline. I looked up. “What? Is there a problem with that?”

  He grinned in the mirror.

  “No, no. But you look so determined. Relax.”

  Hey! I just met this guy and will probably only know him for a fleeting moment! How dare he judge my organizational habits and me?

  “Breck is the original go-with-the-flow guy.” Sister Mary Grace leaned over to tease. “Sometimes I wonder how he even got through school without me there to prod him along.”

  His head tilted to one side. “Sure, sis, once you moved out of the house, everything slowed to a halt. I ask you Auntie Lil, what is a brother to do?”

  Auntie Lil was in the front seat with him and laughed.

  “Poor Breck, you are in a car filled with older sisters. Don’t you know we are genetically incapable of not being bossy?”

  “I guess I’ll not get any sympathy from this bunch,” he nodded. “So, Annalise, what do you have on your list so far?”

  “I have 1) Drop off Sister Mary Grace, 2) Stop by Lombard Street, and 3) Ghirardelli Square, but that’s it. We digressed at that point.”

  “I’ll make another suggestion,” said Sister Mary Grace. “The weather is lovely. You could take a ride on a cable car.”

  “Well I like that idea!” Auntie Lil clapped her hands.

  If I knew Auntie Lil, she’d want to sing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” the whole way, I thought as I added it to the list.

  “How about the Golden Gate Bridge?” asked Breck.

  “What about it?” I replied.

  “Well, lots of people like to park and walk across it—oh, I forgot you don’t want to do anything that involves exercise.”

  “I never said I was opposed to walking, I just said I don’t climb mountains.” The nerve. Well, thinking back, I guess I did say I didn’t bike or hike either. Great. This guy probably thinks my idea of a good time is sitting around scarfing down ice cream and cookies. Which was my most recent hobby, I guess, but that was only because I was depressed, thank you very much. I snapped out of my inner back-and-forth when I heard my name. The three of them were apparently waiting for a response.

  “Um ... I don’t know?” I chanced.

  They burst into laughter.

  “Annalise, you don’t know if you want to have an early dinner or not?”

  “I was lost in my own thoughts,” I grinned sheepishly.

  “What I said was,” Breck began with a smile in his voice, “looking at the time, I thought we might want to skip walking the bridge and just take a drive on it so that we could have an early dinner and get you ladies back to the airport on time.”

  “Sounds great to me,” I agreed. “Oh! The woman at customer service actually recommended a restaurant.”

  I pulled out the restaurant voucher on which she had written the name of the eatery and told the group what she had said about it.

  “Haven’t heard of it, but I’m willing to try it,” said Breck.

  “Just sorry I won’t be there with you folks,” said Sister Mary Grace. “As a matter of fact, this is where we part ways.”

  We pulled into the driveway of a large but unassuming building on a quiet street. A gate surrounded it. Sister Mary Grace would need to ring the bell and pass through the gate without us.

  We all exited the Jeep, and Breck pulled her luggage from the back. Auntie Lil and I thanked Sister Mary Grace for her warmth and hospitality.

  “It was my pleasure,” she said. “I knew my dear brother would be happy to meet you ladies and show you the town.”

  She turned to Breck.

  “Be good and represent the family well, Breccan Michael,” she said with a hug.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He saluted with a smile as she shouldered her bag and walked through the gate. We watched until she walked through the front door, then he turned to us, clapped his hands together, and said, “Alrighty then! Let’s go off on our adventure!”

  The one-block section of Lombard Street with its eight hairpin turns was indeed a few short moments from the convent, and we parked at the top of it to get a good view from top to bottom.

  “I can’t imagine living on that street and having to drive on it every day,” I shaded my eyes and took in the row houses on either side. Auntie Lil took a short stroll to snap a few pictures of the flower beds.

  “Me neither,” said Breck, “but I have always wanted to see if I could take my skateboard from top to bottom.”

  “You’re a skateboarder?”

  “Of course, dude!” He struck a skater boy pose. “My shaggy-haired friends and I were at the skate park every day during the summers back home when I was a kid.”

  I pictured him in baggy shorts and shirt flapping through the skate park’s twists and turns, his red curls flying.

  “I bet you were a regular Tony Hawk,” I said, referring to the most famous competitive skateboarder of the previous 20 years.

  “I wish! I guess we all thought we were. When I went to college, my boarding time got cut severely.”

  “Where did you go to school?” I asked.

  “Gonzaga,” he said.

  “You’re a Gonzaga man,” my aunt said approvingly, rejoining us. She had a soft spot in her heart for the private Catholic college in Washington state.

  “Yes, ma’am. I loved it there.”

  Fleece-clad, ponytailed Breck certainly looked like he belonged in Spokane.

  “What brought you here after graduation?”

  “A job offer. I’m a web designer, and I had a great opportunity with one of the best firms in the Bay Area. It didn’t hurt that Maggie was here.”

  “Maggie?”

  “You just met her. My sister. Oh, I forgot. Sister Mary Grace. She’s been a nun for a while, but it’s hard to remember that she isn’t my big sis Maggie.”

  We nodded in understanding. My great-uncle—Lil’s uncle—was a priest, and we had to struggle to remember to call him “Father Fontana” rather than “Uncle Sal.”

  “So, ladies, what now?”

  “Well, Breck, if you don’t mind ...” began Auntie Lil.

  He grinned.

  “Hop in, because I think I can read your thoughts.”

  “What?” I wasn’t catching on.

  We got back into the jeep, and he drove us as fast as he dared around the turns from the top to the bottom of Lombard Street.

  Chapter Ten

  Fresh from laughing our way down the switchback street, we embarked on the next part of our tour.

  “Let’s see,” I said, consulting my brief list, “what’s next? Chocolate, cable cars, or bridge?”

  Breck and Auntie Lil barely glanced at each other and said in unison: “Chocolate!”

  “No argument here,” I grinned.

  Breck proved to be an excellent tour guide on the way to Fisherman’s Wharf, the famous site of the famous chocolatier, pointing out places of interest along the way.

  “You know a lot about your adopted city, Breck,” said Auntie Lil.

  “Well, I’m a restless guy,” he answered. “When I first moved here, I didn’t know very many people other than Maggie, so I just went out exploring when I had any time off and she was busy. I didn’t have a car, so I walked a lot. You’d be surprised how much of a city you discover on foot.”

  He looked at me pointedly.

  Subtle.

  “A-GAIN,” I felt it necessary to reiterate, “just because I don’t climb MOUNtains doesn’t mean I don’t WALK.”

  “I didn’t say anything about you,” he smiled.

  “Annalise, can’t you see he’s trying to goad you!” Auntie Lil laughed. “And
he’s doing a good job of it!”

  Humph. What was it about this russet-haired man that got to me?

  Maybe it was because he reminded me of Rory who had that same red head and freckles. Oh no! I forgot to let Rory know what was up. I glanced at my watch. She would probably have expected a call during our layover. This extended layover would be big news. I pulled out my phone and texted her.

  Stuck in San Fran for extended layover.

  Auntie L and I on massive adventure.

  Her response was immediate.

  OMG!! Call me with details.

  Can’t. Tour guide is part of adventure.

  Seriously? Tall, handsome stranger?

  I glanced up at Breck in the front seat chatting with Auntie Lil about the Great Fire of 1908. I smiled as I typed.

  Hmm. Kinda.

  WHAT!!! I need photo and details immediately.

  In due time.

  Send ASAP.

  “What are you doing back there?” asked Auntie Lil. “There’s a lot of beeping.”

  “Oh, just texting Rory about our slight delay.”

  “And me?” Breck asked. “You haven’t left me out, right? Who is this Rory? Is he the jealous type?”

  “SHE is my best friend, and, yes I did mention you vaguely.” I closed my texting app so he couldn’t accidentally see my last text. What a flirt!

  We were at a stoplight, and he grabbed my phone and took a flattering photo of himself.

  “Hey!” I grabbed it back.

  “Just wanted you to have a picture to send her.”

  “Oh, as if,” I reverted to high school slang, but I surreptitiously texted the selfie to Rory nonetheless.

  Her response was immediate.

  “Very nice! Who is he?

  What does he do? How did

  you meet? Very exciting!”

  I could barely keep from laughing as I responded.

  “Rory! This is a longer discussion

  than warrants a text! When I

  get a private minute, I’ll call

  you, but until then, chill out.”

  “Don’t forget.”

  I looked up to see that the car had stopped and Breck and Auntie Lil were waiting for me.