Chapter 7

It took her a little while to remember where she was when she woke up in the hotel in New York in the morning. She was in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, she remembered, as her head cleared the sleep away. It was her favorite hotel, when she had to stay in a hotel in New York, right at the bottom of Fifth Avenue, above Washington Square, in Greenwich Village. In the shower, she found that she felt very good, very cheerful, for a guilty girl. She had a whole new life ahead of her. Screw Delmont. It could take its public library and stick it.

After breakfast in the coffee shop downstairs, she walked around to a travel agency she knew about at Sixth Avenue and Twelfth Street. Both women agents behind their desks were busy with clients, so Lynn took down a couple of folders from a rack near the entrance. "Come to the Colorful, Carefree Caribbean," said one. "Fun in Sun Land" rejoiced the other. She leafed through them, then put them back where she'd gotten them. Never mind Fun in Sun Land. She'd settle for sunny Spain, where people lived, not just vacationed. And where life was serene, she'd heard, and civilized, as well as cheap.

She looked again toward the nearest desk. The chair beside it was empty now, and the woman smiled and waved her toward the chair.

"What can we do for your she asked, smiling broadly.

"I'd like to make reservations to go to Spain," Lynn said. "For right away. Or as soon as possible."

"That's easy enough," the woman said. "Whereabouts in Spain? Madrid? Malaga?"

"Isn't Malaga down in the southern part, on the Mediterranean?"

"Yes."

"That's where I want to go."

"For how long?"

"I don't know."

"Well, the longer you stay, the cheaper the round trip. How about eighteen to forty-five days?"

"That ought to do it. And if I decide to stay longer?"

"Make your arrangements over there for your re-turn trip."

"Fine."

"You have a passport?"

"Yes." She dug it out of her bag to show the woman. "I went to France last summer."

"Then it's all up-to-date. But you'll have to get your shots.

"What?"

"Inoculations. Vaccinations." The woman wrote an address on a slip of paper and slid the note across the desk to Lynn. "You can do that this after-noon, if you have time. And I can get you a flight on Iberian Airways that leaves at ten tomorrow evening."

"Fine," Lynn said. "The sooner the better."

It was as simple as that.

Walking back to the hotel, she felt as if she was flying already.