Emily and Einstein
Page 32
Reading & Book Signing
with Emily Barlow
Author of
The Adventures of Einstein:
A Dastardly Dog’s Life at the Dakota
I never wanted to write, still have no interest in writing books for adults. But after finding a box of unused, beautiful blue journals with finely wrought blank pages that my husband left behind, I realized that creating picture books for children, more specifically children’s stories about Einstein, felt right. I am compelled to write about my dog, about his adventures in a home that was Sandy’s gift to me. Telling Einstein’s stories is a gift I have given myself.
I hold a published copy of the large, thin children’s book in my arms. With the tips of my fingers, I trace the cover image—a little white dog watching a single feather float down. The pages are filled with my words and the illustrations I have found the ability to draw. Is this another gift from Sandy, or perhaps from my mother, or another miracle given to me by a hand that I can’t see? I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. I found a way to reenter life on my own terms, with strength I earned through events I survived. And this time I step forward with a man I love in simple pureness.
Joy surges through me, then grows deeper when I see him. Max.
He stands by the sign. When he sees me, he doesn’t say a word, simply walks over to where I stand and pulls me close.
“There you are. I’ve been waiting for you.”
He has waited, patiently, kindly, despite the fact that for a few months I slipped away. He has given me the space I needed to sort out my life, but he’s been there whenever I needed him.
Max has found his way back to himself as well. He has returned to Wall Street, working for a fund that invests in start-up companies determined to make a difference. When we aren’t working or meeting deadlines, he teaches me to climb mountains, and I share with him the simple pleasure of reading a good book in a quiet café. I don’t know exactly what is in store for us, but I’m excited about the possibilities.
He takes my hand and we weave through the quaint shop. The event area in back is already overflowing with people. Young readers and their parents fill the seats; reporters and publishing types stand around the perimeter. Dear, sweet Birdie with her Southern charm has brought cupcakes and cookies, Birdie who is the one meant to bake, and love, and sort through her Texas-sized secrets in the apartment she lives in not far from me.
No one has seen me yet, but I see through the crowd to the front table where hundreds of my books wait.
When I met Hedda at the diner and proposed the idea of writing a series of children’s books about my dog, Einstein, she was stunned. Her surprise was followed quickly by those gears in her brain clicking into place.
“It’s genius! Of course you should be writing stories for children! Like Eloise in the Plaza! Only yours will be Einstein at the Dakota. I love it!”
Hedda sent me a copy of the book as soon as it came off the press, but seeing the book in stores never fails to move me.
Jordan’s book hit the best-seller lists the first week out. She flew back to the States without a bit of resistance to tour for My Mother’s Daughter. I shouldn’t have been surprised that my sister loved every second of the attention. And I shouldn’t have been surprised when she donated every cent of the profits to women in need. I had never loved her more.
When asked what was on tap for book two she said there would be no book two, at least not from her. I laughed and hugged her tight.
And Sandy?
I feel him every day, watching over me. “I love you, Emily. Love you forever.”
I wasn’t wrong to believe in him. And I understand now that I don’t feel alone because I’m not. No matter what happens in my life, I am certain that somehow he is there.
The crowd sees I’ve arrived, the children circling around me, wanting to know all about Einstein and his adventures in the nooks and crannies of a grand old building that is more real in their imaginations than the actual structure which stands only a few blocks away.
These children and the world have fallen in love with a wiry little dog who acts just like a snob of a man.
“Who would’ve ever believed?” I whisper.
I’m almost certain I hear Sandy laugh.
also by linda francis lee
The Ex-Debutante
The Devil in the Junior League
Simply Sexy
Sinfully Sexy
Suddenly Sexy
The Wedding Diaries
Looking for Lacey
The Ways of Grace
Nightingale’s Gate
Swan’s Grace
Dove’s Way
Crimson Lace
Emerald Rain
Blue Waltz
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
EMILY AND EINSTEIN. Copyright © 2011 by Linda Francis Lee. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Lee, Linda Francis.
Emily and Einstein / Linda Francis Lee.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-312-38218-6
1. Husbands—Death—Fiction. 2. Dogs—Fiction. 3. Bereavement—Fiction. 4. Grief—Fiction. 5. Upper West Side (New York, N.Y.)—Fiction. 6. Love stories. gsafd I. Title.
PS3612.E225E45 2011
813’.6—dc22
2010040195
First Edition: March 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-1886-2
First St. Martin’s Press eBook Edition: March 2011