Seeing the large green-and-white highway signs for New York City always produced a herd of butterflies in my gut. Some people lived their whole lives only seeing such signs in movies; I felt lucky experiencing them for real. Excited to be on the road to a place of legend. It was strange going to the city without Abbey. More than once I found myself about to talk to her, peeking in the rearview mirror only to glimpse her empty car seat. She had given me her blessing to travel into town today, along with a new Maxwell drawing for Adrian. And she wasn’t the only one dedicating art to him—we had killed a few hours at the library the day before, and Gwen had given me an envelope of thank-you cards and drawings by the kids from the Rainbow School to pass on. Three other branches in the county were interested in booking him for programs, she had informed me. I took the business card she gave me for the director of outreach programming with mixed feelings. I was happy my idea had been such a success, but wasn’t sure I wanted to share Adrian with the rest of the world yet.
