The Other Gilmore

Travel Books and a New Addition

Lorelai and Frankie were sitting in the living room at the Gilmore mansion with Emily and Richard one Friday night, when Rory came running in holding guidebooks for Europe.

"The girls and I are starting to plan our Europe trip," Lorelai said excitedly as Rory passed the books over to Emily.

"The day after graduation, we are gone," said Rory as she sat down, taking off her coat.

"Well, that sounds very exciting." Richard smiled at the three girls sitting opposite him.

"Lorelai, what are these?" Emily asked, flabbergasted.

"Those are guidebooks," the woman stated.

"'Europe Through the Back Door,' 'The Rough Guide to Europe' – what kind of guidebooks are these?"

"The cheap kind."

"They have all the good information about backpacking and staying in hostels," Frankie chimed in, grinning.

Emily and Richard looked at the girls like their heads had just fallen off. The group went back and forth for a while, the older generation thinking that the Gilmore girls were joking, laughing off the idea of backpacking through Europe, and the younger generations trying to tell them that they were, in fact, not joking.

"My first trip to Europe, I went to Paris and stayed at the Ritz," Emily exclaimed, trying to convince her daughter and granddaughters to change their minds.

"Well, I'll tell you what, if it'll make you happy, we'll go to Paris and eat out of their dumpster," Lorelai replied, earning eye rolls from her parents.

Frankie passed by the construction crew that was building Taylor's Soda Shoppe on her way to Ms. Patty's the following day. She waved at Tom, the foreman, and then walked across the street to the studio where she spent the rest of the day teaching and rehearsing for a recital. When she finally made it home that evening, she saw boxes of Beanie Babies by the door.

"He changed his mind again?" she yelled out as she stripped off her jacket.

"Yep! I swear, this man has changed his mind one hundred million times. I don't know if I can take another switcheroo!" Lorelai groaned from her spot on the couch. She was arranging a retirement party for a man at the Independence Inn, and it was an exhausting ordeal.

"Why Beanie Babies?" Frankie asked, flopping down in the seat next to her mother.

"Who knows." The mother of two sighed, turning her head to face her youngest. "You got mail."

"From?"

"Sherry. For her C-section."

"Oh, okay." Frankie nodded, closing her eyes.

"You don't want to know what it says?"

"Well, I'm assuming I have to RSVP. I mean, it's Sherry."

"So you're gonna go?"

The girl shrugged. "Why not? She's my sister, right? I think it'd be cool to see her on the night that she's born."

Lorelai chuckled, shaking her head. "That's almost exactly what Rory said." Gesturing to the box on the coffee table, she continued. "My mother sent us travel books."

"Oh, goody. So we can be lavish and live it up rich-people style?" Frankie asked with a sarcastic grin.

The mother shrugged. "It's Emily. Anything other than the finest is unacceptable."