Light Up New York Read online

  Other books by Natalie Grant

  Glimmer Girls series

  London Art Chase (Book One)

  A Dolphin Wish (Book Two)

  Miracle in Music City (Book Three)

  ZONDERKIDZ

  Light Up New York

  Copyright © 2017 by Natalie Grant

  Illustrations © 2017 by Cathi Mingus

  This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook.

  Requests for information should be addressed to:

  Zonderkidz, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

  ISBN 987-0-310-75274-5

  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

  Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.

  Art direction: Cindy Davis

  Cover design and interior illustrations: Cathi Mingus

  Content contributor: Naomi Kinsman

  Interior design: Denise Froehlich

  Printed in the United States of America

  * * *

  17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 /DCI/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To my Glimmer Girls—Gracie, Bella, and Sadie.

  You’re my greatest adventure. I love you.

  Thank you to Naomi Kinsman for bringing your genius, creativity, and beautiful patience to this process. None of this would be a reality without you.

  CONTENTS

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  ONE

  Mia watched out her window as the cab rolled past the stone piers that supported the bridge. Between the crisscrossed steel beams, she caught glimpses of New York’s tall buildings stretching into the sunset-colored sky. Even after all the Glimmer family adventures in the past few months, visiting New York City was a particularly special treat.

  “It’s like driving into a dragon’s mouth!” Lulu shouted, bouncing in her booster seat.

  Lulu had insisted on sitting in the middle of the cab’s tiny back row, squished between Mia and Maddie. Mom and Dad had a row of their own in front of the girls, and Miss Julia sat alone in the row ahead of them.

  “Watch your elbows, Lulu,” Mia complained, exchanging a glance with Maddie.

  Mia knew Maddie wouldn’t say anything about Lulu nearly poking out her eye. Maddie might have been born on the same day as Mia, but their differences went far beyond Mia’s glasses. Mia had been born two minutes earlier, was two inches taller, and her patience seemed to wear out two times faster. But lately, even Maddie’s patience had been wearing thin. Whatever Mia and Maddie wanted to do, there was Lulu, insisting on being smack-dab in the middle of it.

  “No wonder people call this city the concrete jungle,” Miss Julia said, leaning forward and looking up out of the front window. “The bridge does feel like it’s swallowing us up, doesn’t it, Lulu? Oh, and girls, in case you’re wondering, this is the Queensboro Bridge.” After a moment of fact-checking on her phone, she added, “Built between 1901 and 1909.”

  Miss Julia was curious about everything, which was one of the things Mia liked best about traveling with their nanny. She made it feel like they had an on-the-go tour guide everywhere they went.

  Lulu had been busy counting on her fingers, but now she looked up, eyes wide. “Whoa. That’s more than a hundred years ago.”

  Maddie took hold of her seat belt strap and warily eyed the river below. “But the bridge is safe?”

  “Actually, it was recently renovated,” Miss Julia said. “They finished the renovation in 2012.”

  Someone leaned on their horn. Another car honked back, setting off a flurry of horns blaring on all sides.

  “This traffic!” Dad said.

  “Even when it’s not rush hour, it’s crowded,” the cabbie said. “That’s just the way the city is.”

  “It’s often called the city that never sleeps,” Mom said. “Which is one of the things I like most about New York. Also, there are, at the very least, 80 museums in the city. A great reason for another visit!”

  “Does that mean we don’t have to sleep while we’re here?” Lulu asked.

  Dad laughed and reached back to tug on one of her pigtails. “Don’t you wish.”

  “Speaking of sleep,” the cabbie continued, making Mia wonder whether all New York cabbies were so talkative. At home, they hardly ever rode in cabs, but sometimes they did while on tour with Mom. Mia’s favorite cabs were the ones they’d taken last summer in London, with steering wheels on the opposite side of the car. None of the London cabbies had spoken to them, though. Obviously, New York was different.

  “Have you heard about the muckety-mucks who will be sleeping on the streets this Thursday night?” the cab driver went on. “They want to help homeless teens—that’s a good thing. But I hope they know what they’re getting themselves into. January in New York is cold. Good thing this week is well above zero and no snow yet . . . but still.”

  “Actually, I’ll be singing at the Light Up New York concert on Friday night before the sleep-out,” Mom said. “And so will the girls. We hear it’s a beautiful event. Everyone streams into Times Square, candles lit, lighting up the surrounding streets. Last year, in the months after the event, hundreds of homeless teens transitioned off the streets.”

  “I’ll sing you our song!” Lulu announced, and launched into it, filling the cab with her voice.

  After an ear-splitting chorus and a verse, the cabbie’s radio crackled to life.

  “Quiet now, Lulu,” Mom said. “We need to make sure the driver can hear his radio.”

  “Huh,” the cab driver said, eyeing Mom in the rearview mirror. Mia could tell he wanted to ask Mom who, exactly, she was, but he left it alone.

  Dad winked at Mom and laced his fingers through hers, whispering, “Muckety-muck.”

  Mia rolled the phrase around in her mind, wishing she could ask Miss Julia where it came from. Even though Mom was a muckety-muck—whatever that meant, exactly—thankfully, she wasn’t going to sleep on the streets. Dad and the event organizers had decided Mom should sleep indoors to protect her voice. And that meant the girls wouldn’t sleep outside either. Mia hoped she’d be bold enough to take part in the sleep-out when she was older, even though sleeping on the streets didn’t sound one bit comfortable. If she’d learned one thing at Third Str
eet Community House this fall, it was that being poor wasn’t only about not having enough money. One of the worst parts of being poor was feeling less than others and separated from everyone else. Mia thought the sleep-out was an interesting way for the community to start to connect, even if it was only for one night.

  “So, girls, we have a week in New York,” Mom said. “What do you want to do while we’re in the city?”

  Mia reached for her journal. On the plane, she’d written a list of things she wanted to do. For the past few weeks, she’d been reading up on New York City and all there was to do here. But before Mia could even find the right page, Lulu threw both her arms into the air.

  “Ice skate!” Lulu shouted. “Didn’t you say we could ice skate outside?”

  Mia blew out a sigh. Of course Lulu would want to ice skate. Lulu could skate rings around both her sisters, but especially Mia. Maddie was a pretty good skater too. It was all Mia could do to stay on her feet while her skates slipped and slid on the ice.

  “Mia wrote a list on the plane.” Maddie tapped Mia’s half-opened journal. “You had a lot of good ideas.”

  “What sounds fun to you, Mia?” Mom asked.

  Mia finished flipping through pages until she found the list. “Well, I read that the library isn’t like ordinary libraries,” she said. “There’s art on display, which Maddie would like, and books, of course. And a map room.”

  She ran her finger down her list. “And there’s the Met, where Claudia and her brother, Jamie, hid out and solved a mystery in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. And they took a bath in the fountain and collected pennies.”

  “Who did what?” Lulu asked.

  “They’re characters in a book I read. It’s by E. L. Konigsburg,” Mia explained.

  “Oooh!” Lulu grabbed hold of Mia and Maddie, so excited that her fingers dug into their arms. “That’s what we should do! Solve a mystery!”

  “Hold it.” Dad turned to give them a serious look, but they could all see the smile under it. “I think we’ve had more than our share of mysteries for the year.”

  “You can say that again,” Mom agreed. “Okay, so the library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art . . .”

  “And ice skating!” Lulu said.

  “And the Statue of Liberty,” Maddie added.

  “And I want to find the perfect cup of coffee,” Dad said. “And eat some famous New York pizza.”

  “Pizza!!” Lulu echoed.

  “I vote we have pizza for dinner,” Mom said. “We’ll get settled in our rooms and then go see what we can find. What do you say, girls?”

  “Yay!” the girls chimed, for once in complete agreement.

  “Here’s your hotel,” the cab driver said, pulling up to the curb and turning off the engine. “Welcome to the Grand Hyatt, ladies and gentleman.”

  TWO

  Once through the revolving doors and past an indoor waterfall, the Glimmer family and Miss Julia rode the escalator up into the hotel lobby. Grand pillars lined either side of the wide open space. People sat on low, cushioned benches, which made the space look more like a waiting room than a lobby. Here and there, glass vases filled with white stones, curlicue sticks, and one or two bright orange flowers added a splash of color.

  “Where’s the front desk?” Maddie asked.

  Mia couldn’t immediately tell. Puzzled, she turned in a slow circle, taking in the concierge tables, the ballroom, and the bank of elevators. Finally, she saw people dressed in staff uniforms standing behind little counters on the left side of the room. For such a grand room, it was odd that the desk was almost disguised.

  “This way,” Dad said, leading the way toward the counters.

  “Snacks!” Lulu made a beeline for the bright lights of the bakery that made up another corner of the lobby. She’d probably have piled her arms full of cookies and chips, but Miss Julia caught Lulu before she’d gone too far.

  “Remember, we’re going to have pizza in a few minutes,” Mom said. “But it’s good to know there are snacks right here in the lobby.”

  “Midnight snacks!” Lulu said.

  “Maybe an apple or granola bar?” Mom’s eyes twinkled. They all knew healthy snacks weren’t what Lulu had meant.

  After Dad had registered the Glimmers, the clerk behind the desk motioned to the escalator. “And just below the hotel is Grand Central Terminal. You’ll find shops and restaurants down there, plus the subway and train systems that will take you anywhere you want to go.”

  He passed Dad the room keys and pointed out the elevators. “The two elevators closest to us only go to the lower floors. You’ll want to take one of the others, which go all the way up to your rooms.”

  The elevator was so small that Mia wasn’t sure everyone and all the luggage would fit. Finally, after they shuffled and stacked a couple bags, everyone managed to make it inside. A subway map lined one wall of the elevator. Mia studied it—so many colors, all indicating train routes going in all different directions. Street names labeled each stop rather than famous locations, so most of the station names didn’t mean much to Mia. She did manage to pick out the large green square that made up Central Park and Yankee Stadium before the elevator pinged at floor 32.

  “Everyone out!” Dad said, handing Miss Julia a key. “You’re in room 3217, and we’re right across the hall in 3216 and 3218.”

  Miss Julia rolled her suitcase to her room, promising to come to their rooms as soon as she settled in.

  “We’re in our own room?” Mia liked the idea of being more grown up, but she wasn’t sure she and Maddie were grown up enough for their own room. Especially if they would have to look after Lulu and keep her out of trouble.

  Mom wrapped an arm around Mia. “No, we’re in adjoining rooms. There’s a door between them that you can use at any time. We’ll prop it open at night so you feel safe. I think we’ll keep your room door bolted, so you can come in and out of our door. That way we can keep an eye on you.”

  Dad tickled Lulu and said, “Especially on YOU!”

  Lulu giggled, and Mia felt better, but only slightly. The thing was, the last time they’d been in a big city, Lulu hadn’t been the one to worry about. She’d made a little trouble, sure, but Maddie was the one who had snuck out without an adult. She’d had a reason—wanting to solve a mystery and feeling like no one was listening to her—but still.

  Dad opened the door to his and Mom’s room and flipped on the light. The Glimmers crowded into the little hallway between the bathroom and the closet. The room wasn’t all that large. In fact, it was just big enough for a king bed with a bedside table on either side, a dresser with a TV on top, and a window seat.

  “Is that the door to our room?” Lulu pointed to a door beside one of the bedside tables.

  “I think so.” Dad tried the handle and then pushed it open.

  The girls all piled through to a room that was almost identical to their parents’ room. Mia stopped short when she saw one king bed.

  “We’re all supposed to sleep in one bed?”

  “No, one of you is going to sleep on a rollaway,” Mom said.

  “You mean one of those little beds on wheels?” Mia asked. “I want to sleep on it!”

  “No, I want to!” Lulu said. “I want my own bed.”

  Mom held up her hands before the girls could launch into a full-blown argument. “How about we decide after we’ve had some pizza? Let’s put your bags in the closet so we don’t trip over them. Later, we’ll unpack and settle in, since we’ll be here for a week.”

  As Mom helped Lulu stack the bags in the closet, Maddie pulled open the blinds. “Look!”

  Outside, buildings loomed. It was a little strange not to be looking up or down at them. Even all the way up there on the thirty-second floor, they were right in the middle of everything. Across the street, Mia could see into lit windows, like she was looking through frames at moving pictures. People at desks answered phones and filed papers and rolled around in rolling chairs.
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  “They have no idea we’re watching them,” Mia said.

  “Maybe someone is watching us back!” Maddie said, and they both ducked, peeking over the window frame to scan the building for anyone who might be looking out.

  “What are you doing?” Lulu asked, joining them.

  Mia’s hands balled into fists. Every time she and Maddie were finally having some time just for them, Lulu snuck in.

  “We’re just playing around,” Maddie said, noticing Mia’s frustration and trying, as usual, to smooth things over. “Pretending someone might be watching us, the way we’re watching them.”

  Dad popped his head into the room. “Ready for pizza?”

  “Yes!” Mia’s stomach growled, and she knew that some food would take her mind off Lulu.

  The girls leapt to their feet, nearly knocking into one another in their excitement.

  “Pizza!” Lulu shouted, twirling her way out the door. “Pizza, pizza, pizza!”

  THREE

  After bundling back into hats and gloves, they knocked on Miss Julia’s door. She had already made her room her own. She’d stacked her books on the bedside table, arranged a collection of winter hats up on the desktop, and hung her clothes neatly in the closet. She’d left her fuzzy slippers beside the bed.

  The girls helped Miss Julia choose a striped hat for the pizza trip, and then they rode the elevator down to the lobby. The restaurant was several blocks away, but not too far to walk. At each crosswalk, a flood of cars passed. Taxis swooped around cars that weren’t moving fast enough . . . or so the taxi drivers thought. The screech of tires and honking of horns filled the air. Even before the crosswalk light changed, people poured out into the street. Mia feared for their lives, but fortunately, most cars yielded to pedestrians.

  The city was alive with people—people on bikes, in cars, on buses, and walking. Business people hurried along in groups, deep in conversation. People walked handfuls of dogs, and vendors shouted about the food in their carts. Parents with strollers tried to keep track of their other kids, who stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to look up without warning. Mia found herself doing the same. Everywhere she looked, the city was a jumble of interesting sights. Scaffoldings surrounded construction projects. Trees filled postcard-sized parks. Every once in a while, something took her breath away, like the soaring spires of a cathedral. After a few blocks, Miss Julia circled around to walk behind the girls and make sure none of them got left behind.