The Past Recedes

Chapter 37

"I want to take lots of pictures, the big lake near Palm Springs is the Salton Sea and that's disgusting", said Nika.

John nodded as he took their suitcases to the living room to wait for Anthony to pick them up. "I heard about it, I saw on a news show. It's totally polluted from fertilizer runoff and it killed all the fish, it's toxic. Lake Tahoe is much nicer than that", he said.

"Grandmere says you should sit on a suitcase for good luck before a trip, her father said that", said Nika.

John smiled indulgently at his daughter as they sat on their suitcase. "I'm skinny, I won't break it. I guess it's to think about your trip, a sort of meditation", he mused aloud.

There was a car door opening outside and then a knock on the door. Hey, Fru and Nika. You guys ready?", said Anthony.

John nodded as he grabbed the suitcase and placed it in the trunk of Anthony's dark blue Camaro. "Ohh, aren't you pretty?", cooed a beautiful blond lady in the passenger's seat, smiling kindly at Nika.

"Nika, this is my girlfriend Yolanda. Yo, this is John's daughter Nika", said Anthony.

Nika blushed as she dropped into a curtsy. "I am glad to meet you, Miss Yolanda", she said solemnly.

"How cute, I haven't seen that since my ballet class when I was a kid", said Yolanda in surprise, taking off her sunglasses to clean a spot with a wipe.

Nika was still blushing when she got in the backseat with John. She studied Yolanda and thought the blond lady was the prettiest woman she had ever seen. The older woman was tall as Anthony and willow slim with blond hair cut in a chic bob that just grazed her chin and vivid blue eyes, her simple white dress clinging to her slender figure. "We used to go to Yosemite back in the day, I went all the time with Flea and Hillel in high school. Tahoe is close to Yosemite, maybe we can go there for the day", said Anthony.

"Maybe, I don't want Nika to get exhausted", said John.

"I've only been to Palm Springs and England and Japan to see Mom's family, I'm not familiar with the rest of California", said Nika.

"Wow, so your family just flew to England from California? Did you stop anywhere?", asked Anthony.

"We just changed planes in New York, then drove up to Yorkshire once we landed in England to Great Uncle Ian's home. He has a big manor house named Roseblanche", she replied.

"Cool, is he a knight or something?", teased Anthony.

"Actually, he is. He's Sir Ian Sutherland. He's written a lot of books on Hellenistic Greece and bestselling novels about Alexander the Great", she replied

"Awesome, I'll have to ask Brendan if he knows him. Brendan is our British friend, he booked us to play Club Lingerie to open up for Bad Brains. He's northern English too, from Manchester", said Anthony.

"Pepere is from Manchester, him and Great Uncle Jack are from Didsbury. I must meet him, there's not many people from northern England in the US", said Nika.

Unlike the drive to Big Sur, the trip to Lake Tahoe took them northeast through inland California. As they drove further inland, they passed the massive, fertile farms of the Imperial Valley, all lush and green with ripening fruit orchards and vegetables under an azure blue sky. The fields then gave way to forests and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the dark green of the pine forests and the snow-capped peaks under a painfully blue sky.

"I didn't know there were mountains like this in California", said Nika.

"Wow, you really haven't seen anything in California", Anthony exclaimed.