California Schemin' - Kate George [12]
After the shower I lay down on the bed, looking forward to flipping through channels and watching trash television. It was a guilty pleasure I almost never indulged in. Kind of hard to indulge with no TV in the bedroom and only three channels to boot. I discovered a Sudoku book in the drawer with the TV remote and looked to see how hard the puzzles were. The trouble with Sudoku is that it never fails to put me to sleep.
I woke up mid-afternoon, ordered a turkey sandwich from room service and flipped the flat screen back on. As the sun went down and the lights on the mall came on, the city became even more irresistible. I concentrated on the TV, trying to ignore the pull of the vista in front of me, but there wasn’t anything remotely as interesting as the city below. I pulled myself together, swiped some mascara through my lashes, shrugged on a jacket and headed out to see the monuments.
Outside the hotel I thought for a minute about hailing a cab, or rather having the doorman hail me a cab while I waited in the warmth of the lobby, but how often was I going to get the chance to walk the Washington Mall? A woman was leaning against the brick wall of the hotel. She had stringy brown hair and wore a stained, camel-colored coat hugged to her body and ratty jeans. She pushed herself upright and approached me.
“I can give you a tour,” she said. “Twenty-five dollars. I can show you everything you want to see.”
“Are you a taxi driver?” I asked. There weren’t any taxis parked nearby.
“No.” She ducked her head. “You’d have to pay the taxi separate.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll walk.” I started across the street toward the expanse of the mall, the woman shadowing me.
“No, really, I’m set,” I said as I stepped up onto the curb on the other side of the road. She was next to me matching me stride for stride. “Maybe some other time.” But she stuck to me as I headed down the sidewalk. A knot was forming in my stomach, not that I thought I was really in any trouble, it was just odd. I was a weirdo magnet.
I looked around for a place where I wouldn’t be alone and spotted a mounted police officer near the Washington Monument. I headed toward her. My shadow veered off as I went to pat the horse and chat with the officer.
I stood under the Washington Monument for a few minutes. The marble glowed in the flood light. It was huge and I felt minuscule. The Lincoln Memorial glowed from the other end of the reflecting pool and I headed across the grass, down the mall away from the capital. The reflecting pool was long and I pulled my jacket around me and increased my speed. I didn't want to work up a sweat, but I wouldn't mind being just a bit warmer.
Like the Washington Monument, Lincoln was lit by floods. It glowed in the twilight. The lights had come up all along the mall from the capital to Lincoln and from the White House to Jefferson. It was almost magical. It would have been fabulous if I wasn’t so dang cold and more than a little freaked out.
As I mounted the steps to get a better look at Abe, I saw movement. There was a woman standing in the rotunda reading the writing on the wall. She was smartly dressed, plaid skirt and a short black pea coat. Sensible shoes. She glanced over and gave me a shy smile before turning her gaze back to the script. She seemed more nervous about me than I was about her, so I relaxed and turned to Lincoln.
He was imposing up there on his throne. Well, I guess it was really a chair, but he was kind of like a king sitting up there surveying the mall. Like an Egyptian prince or something. I turned to read the words engraved on the wall but I got the uneasy feeling that the woman was watching me. Normally, I would have pushed the feeling aside, but I chickened out and headed back down the steps and onto the mall.
The Vietnam Memorial was more imposing than I had expected it to be. I ran my hand along the names and let sorrow wash over me. Tens of thousands of lives cut short.