Chapter 160 - Hometown

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Our plane landed at PDX at about 10:00 the next day.

"So, the days all up to you Mijita." Lin said, as we walked out of the airport, "why aren't there cabs?" He asked, "shouldn't they be at the airport?"

"Oregon doesn't really, cabs aren't as plentiful." I said.

"Subway? Bus?" He asked, confused.

"Uber." I explained.

"Okay, I'll get it, one second." He pulled his phone out, and got the two of us an Uber. "We're going to downtown Portland." He announced, "when we get there, what's the plan?" He asked me.

"I don't know, there's a bookstore?" I suggested.

"Nerd." Lin coughed.

"No! Actually, it's the worlds biggest new and used bookstore." I explained, "I love it."

"Okay." He dragged the word out, "any other plans?" He asked.

"I don't know, when we get to Southshore, um, there's a little Chinese place, a park near where I grew up." I sighed thinking about it.

"That sounds nice."

"Voodoo donuts! Food carts! Frozen yogurt!" I was so excited about it.

"You're so cute." He said, and kissed my temple.

Soon enough, our Uber showed up, and drove us to a rental car place, as neither of us felt like driving around with other people for the day.

"Okay, just take a left up here." I pointed down the street, taking directions from my phone, and he pulled into a parking garage.

"I hate Portland." He muttered, going up a couple floors to find a spot.

Once he found a parking spot, we went inside the bookstore, which was called Powells, I was looking at the shelf of recommended books, when Lin tapped my shoulder.

"Abigail, this is a book about cooking with Marijuana." I turned around and laughed. "There's a whole display table about bikes and weed." He pointed behind him. "I want to get it for V as a birthday gift." He sighed, looking at the cook book.

"I don't think she'd like that." I said, laughing.

"Good point. How about," he went back to the table and grabbed a second book, "Weed; The Users Guide. A 21st Century Handbook For Enjoying Marijuana" He read the title off and I broke down.

"How about this." I picked up the Hamiltome from the shelf and handed it to him. "It's number 22 in bestsellers."

"Ah, so the potheads like my musical." He said, and I giggled.

"Hey!" A guy in a big coat, with a beanie and a scruffy beard yelled from behind Lin, "It's legal now. Don't knock it till you've tried it. How 'bout trying some? Sweetheart? You down for it?" He asked, and Lin grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from that section.

"Okay. That was creepy." He said, "seriously, did he just offer you drugs?"

"Yep." I nodded.

"I hate Portland." He added, I was holding his hand, and pulling him over to the sheet music section of the store, it was across the store, but on the same floor, so, not that bad.

"Here ya go." I said, stepping back, letting go of his hand.

"The complete works of Cole Porter." He said, pulling a book off of the shelf. "Jackpot." He started pulling books off of the shelf, until he had a basket full of piano and vocal sheet music books. "Where to next my small peanut child?" He asked.

"I don't know." I shrugged.

"Oh crap, is that?" I turned around to see a guy standing behind us, "it is. Lin-Manuel Miranda." Lin turned around.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Oh gosh, um, I'm a huge fan, can you sign this?" He asked, handing my dad a copy of the book, The Black Prince Of Baseball.

"Sure, but, I didn't write this." Lin said, tentatively taking it. "Peanut, there should be a sharpie in the front pocket of my backpack." He said, and I quickly grabbed it, and handed it to him. I looked over his shoulder.

I'm not good at the sportsball, hopefully you are.
Siempre Lin

I laughed a little and Lin handed it back to the owner.

"Thank you so much." He said, looking at it, "holy crap thank you." He walked away, staring at the autograph.

"Portland is weird." He sighed.

"They like it that way." I noted, showing him a bumper sticker that said, 'keep Portland weird'

"Ew why?" He asked, and I laughed.

•••

After we were done at Powells, I suggested food carts for lunch, and my father happily obliged. I bought a grilled cheese sandwich from a truck entitled

Grilled Cheese Grill
"Come in for a taste of your childhood, unless your childhood sucked, then we'll give you a taste of ours."

Lin bought some foreign food with a name I cannot pronounce, and we ate it sitting on the curb across the street.

"Oddly enough," Lin started, "this is really good." He took a bite of whatever was in his dish.

"Thanks for taking me." I said, smiling.

"Of course, I had to see where my daughter was raised, and frankly, I'm shocked that you're not a druggie."

"Oh, I didn't grow up here. I lived in a two story house in a white suburb." I admitted.

"Oh. Hmm, I'm not surprised." He shrugged, "shall we go there then?" He asked, standing up, then helping me up as well.

"Sure, but first, Voodoo donuts." I said, and we got in the rental car to pick up the delicious food.

As we started the drive to Wilsonville, my hometown, I had the bright pink box of a dozen donuts sitting on my lap. I was eating one that was covered in M&Ms. Lin on the other hand, was attempting to eat a bubble gum flavored maple bar, and was driving, quite dangerously, with one hand.

"Oh my gosh." I squealed, as we started to near the little suburb, "I know this street."

"This is your street!" Lin sang, "smile at the neighbors, you've known all your life, they'll regard you with pride." I laughed at the reference, and he turned to park in the lot of my high school. "The neighborhood plays, old forgotten Boleros!"

"White suburb." I reminded him.

"And the neighborhood plays, really bad country music!" He changed the lyric, and I laughed, stepping out of the car.

"There ya go." I said, closing the car door.

"So, you weren't kidding, wealthy white suburb."

"Nope." I sighed, "we can walk into town." I announced, and the two of us took stride down the street.

"Free bus?" Lin asked, pointing to a sign.

"Yep. I never road it." I admitted.

"Oh, okay." He shrugged, and we kept walking.

Eventually we made it to the park and we sat together on the grass eating frozen yogurt, from a local store. As we were talking Lin got a call and had to take it. I sat there patiently eating my strawberry frozen yogurt, when I heard someone yell my name.

"Abigail Edminston?" I turned around and saw one of my oldest friends Alexis, standing behind me, "Abigail, is that you?" She asked, and I nodded. "Oh my gosh it's been years!" She ran over and gave me a hug, sitting next to me on the grass, "what are you doing back in town? Did you move back? Who's this?" She rattled off questions.

"I'm just back for the day, and, uh, this is my dad." I smiled, but he was pre-occupied with his call.

"Your dad dad? Or like a foster dad?" She asked.

"No, I'm adopted." Lin picked this time to lean over and tell me something.

"Peanut, it's your mom, she won her case."

"Oh! Tell her congrats from me!" I smiled at him.

"Will do," he obliged, "do, did, you, you have a friend!" He smiled, then returned to his call.

"Your moms a lawyer?" Alexis asked.

"Mmhm." I nodded.

"That's cool." She smiled, "so, why are you in town?"

"Well, I live in New York, and we flew out to L.A. for The Late Late Show with James Corden, and since we were on the West Coast, I sorta pestered him to come here."

"And I love her so I'm here." Lin said, and kissed the top of my head.

"Why did you fly out for a talk show?" She asked, sort of oblivious.

"Oh! I was on it." I smiled.

"What?! You were on a talk show? No way." She seemed shocked. "Why?"

"Because he adopted me." I answered honestly.

"He? Your dad? Is he famous or something?" She asked.

"Sorta." He shrugged, and checked his watch, "peanut, we should probably head out, the shows in an hour."

"Okay." I smiled, and he helped me stand up.

"I'll throw this away." He took my yogurt cup, and ran off to a trash can.

"It was nice seeing you again!" I said, and gave Alexis a hug.

"You too." She returned the hug, "can I have your phone number?" She asked.

"Yeah! Of course!" I said, and typed it into her phone.

"Thanks." She smiled at me, "you doing alright? He's a good dad?" She asked.

"He's the best thing to happen to me Alexis, I swear." I admitted truthfully.

"Okay, you've lied before, so, if he hits you, don't stay quiet."

"He would never hit me. Ever. He's my dad because he found out someone was hitting me."

"Okay. Text me! I miss you!" She gave me one last hug, and then I ran after my dad, and we started to walk back to the high school together. I looked behind me to see Alexis walking away as well, her dark curly hair swaying in its ponytail.

"She seemed nice." Lin said, wrapping an arm around me.

"She was." I sighed.

We walked down to the high school, and I awkwardly stood in the common area as Lin got our tickets. It was closing night, and I ended up buying concessions.

"Okay sweetie, first row." He took my hand and walked me into the auditorium.

"Everyone's staring at us." I whispered.

"I know." He laughed a bit as we took our seats. "I can make it worse, one second." He pulled out his phone, and took a picture of the two of us, then tweeted it with the caption:

@Lin_Manuel - Took the child (@Abi_Miranda) to see The Play That Goes Wrong at her old high school today.

It took about a minute before we heard a scream offstage, I snickered a bit, then saw that Lin had his hand out for a high five, which I did.

@Abi_Miranda - @Lin_Manuel at Lincoln High, technically I went here for like a week... *shrugs*

I looked at all of the little responses saying that they went to Lincoln, and some saying that they were in the cast. I smiled, and powered my phone off for the show.

"Abi!" Lin exclaimed next to me. "This cast member loves jamming to Hamilton with his friends."

"Well that's awesome." I laughed. Lin was tweeting about it, I leaned over his shoulder to read it.

@Lin_Manuel - Lovin' this kid already. You go. You're gonna do great.

•••

The show went fabulously. The Hamilton fan did a great job, and the show was quite hysterical.

"Okay Peanut. This'll take a while, I'm sorry, it's part of being a Miranda, I wish it wasn't." The two of us left the auditorium, and the cast was out in the common area, they all started screaming as soon as Lin and I walked out.

There was a lot of photo taking, signing, and talking. We finally got back into our car, and drove away, returning to our hotel at 11:00. I collapsed in my bed.

"Night Peanut." Lin yawned from his bed.

"Thanks for today Dad."

"No problem Peanut."

•••

OK

I HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY.

1.) Those Weed books are legitimate books look them up.

2.) I don't think Southshore is an actual place, but the bookstore is!! I looked it up! Isn't it cool?

3.) We did The Play That Goes Wrong last year. It was really good.

Thanks for reading!!

- Abi

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