There was something about books that just supplied Pemberley James with comfort. The feel of the spine of the book pressing into her arm as she cradled it made her feel not as anxious after walking through airport security. Maybe it was because it supplied her something to do with her arms or the fact that it was like a comfort blanket given to her from her mother as she left home. Pemberley couldn't help but smile thinking back to when the book was placed into her nervous, clammy hands.
"Now make sure you call me as soon as you land," Pemberley's anxious mother instructed. She then handed her a well-worn copy of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. "And here is something to keep you busy as you are flying. Don't talk to strangers, and-" Scarlett James' nervous motherly ranting’s were cut short.
"Mom, I am twenty-one years old. I have flown before and I am well aware of the concept of stranger-danger. You and dad have so diligently stressed it to me as soon as I was able to hold a conversation to something other than a stuffed animal," Pemberley had said, wrapping her mom in a warm embrace with her arm that wasn't holding her boarding pass and newly acquired book. It was almost instinctual after the mentioning of her father. The once excitedly voice conversation's mood dropped to one of a more solemn tone. Pemberley felt her mother's hug weaken a bit.
"I know, sweetie. You have a good head on your shoulders," Pemberley's mother half-heartedly laughed as she released her daughter. She hastily wiped a tear from her eye and reached down to the floor to grab her daughter's backpack. While she gently placed it on Pemberley's shoulder, her daughter grabbed her arm and looked intently into her eyes.
"Mom," she said, her voice was filled with genuine concern. "You know I don't have to do this. I don't have to go. Aunt Lucy and Uncle Charlie can find someone else to watch their house. I would be more than happy to spend the summer here with you. I can take that job at the rec center. It wouldn't be an issue."
"Pemberley Elizabeth James, you are going. I am perfectly able to manage and you promised your great aunt and uncle that you would house-sit for them this summer and I have raised you to be a woman who never goes back on her promises. You are going to go to Sweet Water, Georgia. And you are going to love it. You won't want to come home. In a month I will come down for a visit. By that time, you have better have found you a job and that house better be in a better state that what you found it. I mean it." Pemberley laughed at the ferocity and sternness that her sweet, tiny-framed mother was able to conjure up in a matter of seconds. Her mother was as stubborn as a mule and gentle as a deer, which always fascinated and amused her.
"Yes ma'am, I know," she replied. "Just know I am only a phone call away if you need me to come back up here I will. I love you." Pemberley gave her mom one last hug.
"I love you, more," her mom replied, and for once Pemberley didn't argue back to that statement with her usual, "Love you the most", as she was struggling to fight back tears. She walked away from her mother, fighting the temptation to look back. Scarlett James watched her daughter's back walk away as she flicked her long, straight brown hair over her shoulder. She knew her daughter, and she knew that Pemberley wasn't the kind of girl to look back on anything, but she waited and waved anyway. Pemberley couldn't see, but she took reassurance in knowing that her mother was still there, like she always was. Taking a deep breath, she glanced down at the book in her hands and watched as one single tear fell and it the cover.
As Pemberley walked the gangway to board the plane, she couldn't help but feel the bubble of anxiety forming in her stomach. Reality of what she was about to was setting in. Not only was she about to trust a hollow metal bird to keep her airborne in the sky that was steered by a few thin metal propellers and the probably sleep deprived pilots, but she was about to leave everything she knew for three months. Sure she had left her little apartment in Maryland before. She has traveled abroad with friends and she even went to college that was three hours away, but she had never been away from home for this long before. And plus, she had never gone alone. When her Great Aunt Lucy called her a month ago suggesting the idea of Pemberley coming down for the summer to look after her and Uncle Charlie's house and dog for the summer as they went on a three month cruise throughout Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, Lucy wished she had hesitated more before she promptly said she would.
