“Sweetie, don’t worry; we’re going to talk every day and we’ll get on the computer so you can see me and Aunt Joan is going to bring you to a couple of our shows, so you can go on tour with us for a while and you know Daddy will be around on the weekends, so you can go over to see him or stay with him whenever he’s home.” “Okay…but I’m still gonna write songs for you. I want to be a songwriter just like Beth when I grow up.” A big smile washed over my face. “Well, I’m sure Beth will love to hear that. And I approve of your choice for a role model.” “I’m going to ask Aunt Joan if we can start the guitar lessons today.” My daughter was definitely destined to be a rocker chick. She had come to too many of our band rehearsals and watched as Beth composed music. She idolized Beth, Christian, Jenny, and Amanda and talked about them all the time (which makes Jessie crazy). And she was the only kid in kindergarten who wore T-shirts with David Bowie and the Go-Go’s on them. Someday the other kids her age would eventually catch up with her, and when they did I hoped they thought she was cool.
Beth was supposed to meet me at the Jet Express dock at noon, but she was late as usual, so I went ahead and bought my ticket and went up to the top deck. For the first day of May, it was unseasonably warm, and I was loving it. I lifted my head up and felt the sun on my cheeks, and I gazed out at the water. Lake Erie could trick the eye into thinking it was a sea, and I wanted to drown my sorrows in it as I thought about what Jessie had said to me earlier that afternoon. All the Lake Erie boaters had put their boats in early to get a jump start on the summer, and the ferry
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