Kira at Tanglewood
Copyright© 2026 by Gina Marie Wylie
Chapter 11
Kira and Rachael were talking about a few last-minute things before they packed it in before dinner when Linda Annacker appeared. “Kira, would you like to eat with me at the student cafeteria? See how the rest of us live?”
Kira looked at Rachael, who nodded. “Like John said, Kira. Take it easy, dance a few times, get to bed early. Take it easy tomorrow.”
Kira walked out of the shed with Linda and over to the dormitories and the student cafeteria. “You’ll have to pay,” Linda said.
When Kira saw the prices, she had to smile. “I’m going to eat here every night. These are a tenth of the prices the restaurant charges.”
Afterwards, Linda waved at a walk. “I make a habit of walking after a meal. My father says it aids digestion. Please, would you like to walk with me?”
“Sure, Linda.”
They walked for about ten minutes, and the evening shadows were starting to lengthen, and the lamps along the paths started to light in the darker spots. Linda stopped, and Kira did too in one of the darker spots. “Kira, I don’t know how to say this, and I hope you won’t be upset with me.”
“I’d never be upset with you, Linda,” Kira replied.
“I really like you, Kira. Maybe I more than like you.”
Kira sighed softly. “Linda, a month ago, I’d have needed an explanation of what you meant, embarrassing both of us. Now ... you don’t have to explain. I feel something too.”
“You do?” Linda took Kira’s hand gently in hers.
“I do. But even more, I feel confused by what I feel. I never imagined ... well, someone like you. A girl. I realized that several boys and a man have kissed me, and I felt nothing; nothing romantic. You hugged me, another girl hugged me a month ago. I felt something. More with you than her, but a lot more than anyone else.”
“They talked about relationships between girls in school and said that so far society was just barely accepting them. Some people, some of the time. Honestly, I wasn’t paying much attention in either seventh or eighth grade. I never thought about it until the first time you hugged me. Since then, I have trouble thinking about anything else, except when I’m playing music. And I’ve played a lot of music since then.
“Do you know what my father said to me before I left?” Linda said.
“I haven’t a clue.”
“The worst thing you can do at this school is meet and fall in love, the love of your young life. Because the odds are against them, even living in Washington state, much less Seattle itself. Long-distance relationships fail 99.99 percent of the time. Don’t do it.”
Kira sniffed. “He left out when the person you like isn’t sure of anything in her personal life at the moment.”
“Kira, for a chance in a million of success, people buy lottery tickets every day. I care a very great deal about you, Kira, and for a chance of spending the rest of my life with you ... I’ll buy that ticket in a heartbeat.”
Kira squeezed Linda’s fingers. “Linda, my father thinks people who buy lottery tickets are not so smart. Yet, Mom says he’s wrong, because objectively, someone always wins, so she buys one ticket a week. We can buy a ticket together.”
“Oh, Kira! Words fail me!” They hugged again.
Kira looked into Linda’s eyes, and when she did that, she knew she had made the right choice. “I swear to you, I’ll do my best to never waver in my feelings for you.”
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