Her phone buzzed with a text message while Emma told the driver that it was Megan’s 21st birthday weekend and they were partying before the Thanksgiving break. While he gave them suggestions of where they should go around their hotel, Thelma opened her phone and discovered a text from Gretchen.
“Sorry I haven’t been around lately,”she apologized.“Work convention out of state. I forgot I was going until my boss reminded me that I said I would. Wish me luck. It’s so boring.”
It took Thelma about two minutes to compose a simple reply.“Sounds fun! I am in Vegas this weekend for Megan’s birthday. Let’s make a date when we both get back. You are coming to Thanksgiving, right?”
She wouldn’t talk about how many mistakes her fat thumbs made before it was acceptable to send.
“Oh, my God,” Megan said. “You stick your tongue out when you’re texting?”
“I suppose so. Do I?”
“Yes. Like this.” Megan demonstrated by tucking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. “You must be concentrating super hard.”
Thelma sat up straight, hands in her lap. “I concentrate on the average amount.”Shit.She hated admitting it, but texting wasdifficult.It required way too much finesse. Whatever happened to typing?
They were staying on the north end of the Strip, which was already a completely different landscape from what Thelma remembered on her two previous trips to Vegas. From the moment she stepped out of the stranger’s car, she was inundated with terrifying explosions that made her leap out of her skin and clamp her hands over her ears. Meanwhile, her granddaughter exclaimed that this was already the best weekend ever becausecheck it out, it’s the Bellagio fountains!
Thelma slowly straightened herself out and realized that what she heard was several thousand tons of water being spewed up into the air.
Emma handled their check-in process. Originally, it was going to be a couple’s weekend, but Megan insisted on inviting Thelma once she implied she might be open to a “girl’s weekend,” as it was pitched.Naturally, I’d like to celebrate my girlfriend’s milestone birthday.Because “twenty-one” was a big deal in the future.I was drinking at sixteen. What do I know?Apparently, sometime between 1958 and 2018, twenty-one became the magic age for drinking alcohol and going into clubs.Rather glad I was born before that, honestly.How would Thelma have enjoyed college so much without a dip into the nightclub with Sandy?
“How you holding up?” Megan joined her grandmother off to the side, guarding their bags as Emma checked in. “First flight in the modern era, now Vegas. It’s a lot, huh?”
Thelma nodded. “Luckily, I told my therapist in advance, and she gave me a few tricks to recall when I’m overwhelmed. Such as telling someone like you the magic pass phrase for when I need to go to our room and not be… in this.”
“Oh? What’s the magic phrase?”
“I’m overwhelmed.”
Megan laughed. “That will do it. So, overwhelmed?”
“Quite.”
“Don’t worry. We’re going to the room right after this. Then some dinner, but lowkey.”
That was one of many words Thelma had shoved into her mental dictionary those past few months, but right now, she could not remember what it meant for the life of her.I get the gist.“Dinner will be lovely. By the way, happy birthday.” Technically, itwasMegan’s birthday already… but they were saving the partying for Saturday. Megan claimed it wasn’t a bigdeal to go to class, have a big test, then board a plane with her grandmother to arrive in Vegas late in the evening.You’d never guess it was almost nine.All around them were people eating, gambling, and talking.
“Time to make sure those inoculations they gave you a while back hold up, huh?” Megan collected their bags when Emma returned with their room keys. “Heading up, Em?”
“Yup! Seventh floor! We are really high rolling around here.”
Thelma knew she was staying in the same room as Megan and Emma, but for some reason, she thought the room would be a little more spacious than two queen-sized beds. But she said nothing as she put her bags next to the bed closest to the bathroom and began unpacking. There were empty drawers and a closet handily available.Thank God it’s quiet in here.
“What are you doing?” Megan asked as Emma popped into the bathroom.
Thelma almost forgot what shewasdoing as she went to hang up her robe in the closet. “I’m unpacking. Don’t worry. I will make sure there’s plenty of room and hangers left for everyone’s things. I’d just really like to have my robe up.”
“Whoa.” Megan watched her grandmother hang up her robe in the closet. “Unpacking. That’s wild.”
“What?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone unpack in a hotel room before.”
With a huff, Thelma closed the closet door. “Guess I’m just old-fashioned, yet again!”
She was almost too tired to head down to dinner with the girls and almost insisted that they go alone so they could have some time together.Young lovers deserve time to themselves.Thelma already felt bad about imposing on their weekend in Vegas together, but both Megan and Emma insisted that it was“cool,” but this meaning of “cool” was different than the “cool” that meant something wasneatorawesome.
But they convinced her, promising they knew an out-of-the-way restaurant that was fairly quiet at this time of night. An Italian place behind the casino that was mostly frequented by locals visiting the Strip and intrepid tourists who didn’t mind walking where some light didn’t shine at night. Thelma took their words for it as they headed down, passed through the cigarette cloud of the casino floor, and emerged on a busy sidewalk full of barkers and gorgeous women dressed in colorful sequins and feathers.
