TLWM: The Hate Experience

\XLV/ Love In Falsetto

     My days and nights in New York were overloaded with movement. I was all over the place, meeting that person and this person and that star and the shinier one. A party every night. I hardly slept. But then we left for Canada. It was like being popped out of a volcano and being dropped on a desolate island. My ears were ringing for days.

I know I was booked in a Montreal hotel suite then another in Toronto, completely withdrawn from the tour that brought me there. As bad as I wanted to see Prince perform, I couldn't take another hit of the Act I Tour. It wasn't a show I needed to see more than twice. In those 48 Canadian hours, I spent most of my time with a four-year-old. Prince was keeping his child away from the concerts too.

The last time Ace and I truly had a one-on-one hangout was that October night after school, when we played silly games like Red-Light-Green-Light and read any and everything in his bookbag that had printed words on it. In Montreal, we spent hours in a library he thought was a castle from the outside. Then close by, we found a museum full of art and color and larger than life sculptures to stand next to with funny faces for a picture. Our friend Wyatt played the role of both protector and photographer. I spoke French to the staff and Ace repeated everything I said, adding his own made-up words in between. "Merci-merci, ah-la-va-vroom-pit, Monsieur." And though it was cold outside, we left to find an ice cream parlor. I had "Cotton Candy Dream". Wyatt chose "Sensational Strawberry". And after Ace taste-tested four different flavors—I had to stop him from getting a fifth—he chose "Chocolate Therapy".

In the suite, Ace and I played Chutes and Ladders for a couple of rounds before it was time to wash up for nighty-night. After two Dr. Seuss classics, I left him to sleep. He was out before his dad came in. I was too. But we were kind enough to leave Polaroids of our day scattered on his side of the bed.

It's almost as if I woke up and was in Toronto. The transition occurred between much napping. There was a drive and a plane ride and another drive. Another hotel with another bed where I slept some more. I slept until I woke up to an empty nest. However, Ace did arrive later, dropped off by Wyatt again.

Wyatt was my buddy from Paisley Park that had spent many long nights guarding the place while I worked in the vault. Now, he was officially hired as my head of security and thankfully because there was already a level of trust between us that I didn't have with any of Prince's other guards. There was also a friendliness there too that made things easy. Wyatt reminded me so much of my uncles, not just in looks but in act. His duty of protecting me felt natural.

In Toronto, I didn't explore. Ace came by just 30 minutes before Prince had to leave. Daddy did squeeze in one game of Chutes and Ladders with us on the fluffy purple rug. He won, causing Ace to pout and yell, "You cheated!" That was a thing with him I noticed. If he didn't win, there was automatic foul play.

Dinner was served to us, compliments from the hotel kitchen. My heart fluttered when Ace asked me to cook for him after his second bite. "I don't know why they didn't ask you for help if they didn't know what they was doing."

For my favorite customer, I crushed three potato chips into his pasta and he ate every bite.

At bedtime, we called Jax. The phone stayed connected as I read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Jax was down by time I got to the last page. Not Ace though. I had to cut him off again after a second book. "But you are so funny! I can't sleep and laugh at the same exact time!"

"Later, alligator. We have a flight to catch in the morning."

Turns out, Ace got more than enough sleep because he was wired on the plane. "Ms. Wizzo is going to be my stairs-mother."