Six weeks! Six weeks! Penny had been ghosting her for six weeks. Her own mother! After the original call at La Mariposa, Alexa hadn’t been able to reach her daughter by phone at all and had received only a handful of texts. Penny had announced that she was “going offline” to “disassociate from relationships and focus on work,” but Alexa didn’t think she really meant it, not with her anyway. She couldn’t remember a day since the advent of smartphones when Penny hadn’t at least sent her a funny meme or heart emoji, a daily reminder that they would always be a team. But six weeks and counting without a decent phone conversation, barely even a text. Around week three, Penny responded to a text inquiring about her health with “Am OK. Need space.” She added a rocket ship emoji for emphasis.

Space! How much more space did her daughter need? Her annoyance in weeks one and two turned to true heartbreak by weeks three and four and nonstop worrying by week five. Now at week six, she turned to the internet to search “signs of depression,” “Can calling off a wedding lead to a medical condition?” and “Is it common for thirty-year-old daughters to resent their mothers?” The internet provided many theories but few answers, and Alexa used work to distract her from the fact that Penny had abandoned her.

Alexa had led three trips to Southern Italy in the last month for groups of families and friends celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and reunions. Even though she remained parked in Italy while the groups flew in and out, it was still a nonstop pace. She was starting to feel her age when these tours ran back to back and she was trekking the familiar streets of Palermo or Taormina with groups of first-timers who asked the same questions over and over again. She needed to cultivate some new trip leaders who could take her place on the tours while she stayed stationary for the summer on Patmos, running the business off her laptop in the lobby of the family’s hotel.

Despite the fatigue and cranky knees, she was thankful that it had been a successful summer for Odyssey Vacations, without any major fiascos. “Every trip without a broken hip on those ancient cobblestoned streets is a miracle,” she always told her staff. But despite the distance, all Alexa could think about when she closed her tired eyes at night was Penny and Chase’s canceled wedding.