Chapter 3

Spencer sat in the window seat of her first class seat aboard the plane taking her from JFK to LAX. Her nerves were out of control so she decided to get her iPod out and listen to some classical music, something that always managed to relax her. Soon enough she’d fallen asleep with her head on her mother’s shoulder. Suddenly the plane started jolting and Spencer was ripped from her semi-peaceful sleep.

“Mom?!!”

Her mother laid her hand on her shoulder comforting her. She knew she never liked flying, but being waken up from a dead sleep would be torture.

“Spence, it’s just turbulence.”

“Uh huh, you say that now until we are going 90 degrees in the other direction!”

Her mother played with a piece of stray hair. All of sudden the flight attendant had come over to them. She was smiling directly at her mother, she started to feel acutely uncomfortable.

“Hello ladies can I get you something to drink?”

“Uhm yes, can I have a white wine, Spence?”

“Same.”

Her mother gave her a dead stare.

“Uh, you’re 16 missy. Not quite old enough. How about a Sprite?”

Spencer nodded. She noticed the flight attendant put her hand on her mother’s arm and leant down gently and whispered just loud enough Spencer could hear it.

“If you need anything, anything at all let me know.”

She pulled back and winked at her. [I] What the hell was that? Was she flirting with Mom? Of course she was, but why? Ewwww! [/I] Spencer thought to herself.

“So Ms. Kennard! 3 years on the singles list and a flight attendant is the first I see flirt with you, and uh mom. She’s a girl!”

Tina nodded her head. Something she’d always practice and preached to her daughter was to be open to all types of love, whether is be with a girl or a boy.

“Yes, but I’m not interested. She’s not my type.”

Tina winked at her daughter.

“Woah, Mom you have a type in woman as well?”

Tina only nodded.

“What do you want me to say? I told you I had been with a woman before I met your father. Those feelings don’t just leave.”

“Yah, but I just figured it was some kind of experiment.”

“Honey. I was 22 when I met her. I was young, but my feelings ran deep.”

This was a story Spencer knew all to well. It had become a type of bed time story to her as she got older. She loved hearing about the time when her mother was completely and irrevocably in love for once in her life. It was the love missing with her father. The look in her eyes she only had when she spoke of a certain brunette with piercing, soulful dark eyes.

“Mom will you tell me the story?”

“Spence, I don’t even know if I should’ve told you in the first place.”

“Well you’ve told me so many times I bet I could tell you it.”

“Well why don’t you?”

“Because it wouldn’t be the same. I wouldn’t be able to see the look in your eyes that you have when you talk about Bette.”

Tina chuckled. She loved how her daughter was on a first name basis with a woman she’d never met, and probably would never meet. That saddened her. She wished Spencer would be able to meet someone with such passion, convictions, and talent as Bette. She wished she would meet Bette. The love that Bette had in her heart was incredible, and it was something Tina had never forgotten.

“Fine.”

Spencer laid her head on her mother’s lap looking up in her eyes as her mother played with her hair and rubbed her thigh. It calmed her almost immediately as she listened to her mother silky voice.

“Well it all started when I was dating this guy named Eric. He had these tickets to go see a Bette Porter show. They were famous. I’d never been much into art, but that night when I looked into her eyes I knew I’d never look at art the same way. I knew I’d found art in her…”