Catch by Michelle D. Argyle Page A

California. She’d
always had an itch to travel and move around. She didn’t like the
idea of being stuck in one place for the rest of her life. Being
stuck meant even less excitement than she already had.
    “How old was she in these?” Julia asked as
she thumbed through a stack of photos.
    “Eighteen—your age, Miranda. She and her
older sister, Veronica, came here to Vegas for the very first
time.”
    Miranda picked up a few more pictures. Some
of them were in color, but most of them were black and white.
Gabriela sifted through the pictures until she found a neat stack
held together with a rubber band. She pulled off the band and
handed Miranda the photos. There were at least a dozen snapshots of
the two sisters in front of buildings—The Flamingo Hotel, The
Riviera, The Aladdin, Caesars Palace, and a bunch of others Miranda
had never heard of. Half of them probably weren’t even around
anymore. Her grandmother looked so happy and excited, and in every
shot she had an arm wrapped around her sister’s waist, hugging her
close. In a lot of ways, they looked similar to her and Julia.
    “I thought you two could go to each of those
locations—if they still exist—and take a photo just like your
grandmother and great aunt did. Create some memories, and then we
can put them all together in an album.” Gabriela’s eyes sparkled as
she looked up at Miranda. “It’ll be an adventure.” She moved her
attention to Julia. “I know this trip wasn’t something you really
wanted to do, but humor me for this? Please?”
    Miranda saw the desperation in her mother’s
eyes, and it hit her in the gut. All those hours Gabriela spent
learning Portuguese, all that time in the kitchen trying to learn
Brazilian cooking, it all had to do with connecting to her mother
in the only way she knew how. For the first time in her life,
Miranda felt a small spark of motivation to help her find that
connection.
    “Sure, Mom,” she said, putting her hand on
her mother’s. “We’ll go out and take the pictures.” She grabbed all
the photos and stacked them into a nice, thick pile and stretched
the rubber band around them.
    “Thanks, girls. I’ll be at your dad’s
convention tomorrow. You can go first thing in the morning after
breakfast. I know you’ll have fun.”
    Julia rolled her eyes and slid off the bed.
“Sounds like a blast,” she sighed as Miranda dropped the photos in
her handbag for later. “Better than the convention, at least.”
     
*
     
    “Well, it doesn’t look anything like it did
in 1967,” Julia said as she and Miranda stood below the gaudy
Flamingo Hotel and Casino sign. It hung over the sidewalk, bright
pink and orange and in the shape of flamingo feathers. In Grammy’s
picture, the sign wasn’t attached to the building but still had the
same basic shape. Miranda couldn’t tell what the colors had been
back then since the photo was in black and white. She wasn’t even
sure the hotel had been in the same place. She squinted at the
picture and then up at the sign above them. People bustled around
them, sweating under the hot sun. Julia wiped her brow. “Maybe we
should go inside. I’m so tired I’m going to fall over.”
    “Hang in there, Jules. We only have Caesar’s
Palace and Planet Hollywood left,” Miranda said, turning around.
“Caesar’s is, like, right across the street.” She pointed in the
direction of a white pedestrian bridge stretching across the busy
road. “See? Then we can take a break before we head down to Planet
Hollywood.”
    “That one’s not in any of the pictures,”
Julia complained.
    “It used to be The Aladdin, remember?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    “Then after that we’ll go back to our hotel
and sleep for the rest of the day if you want.”
    Julia heaved a sigh and started turning in
circles to find someone who might be willing to take the picture
for them. They had done this five times now, and Miranda’s feet
hurt so badly she thought they might fall off. They had