Relocation

“Did I fail to mention how much this sucks?” I grumbled as I loaded a box onto the U-haul.

“For the one hundredth time Edith, Eustis is not going to be that bad.”

“How do you know for sure mom, have you ever been to Eustis have you even heard of Eustis?”

“That’s not the point, now grab more stuff” she insisted loading a lamp and an end table onto the truck.

“What about all of my friends?”

“Edith we are not having this discussion anymore, you’re not moving in with one of your friend” Mom growled.

“Why not it’s perfectly normal for a teenage girl to live with her friends. It would be better than living with you and this cheesy art.”

“Don’t get snarky with me.”

I sighed as I loaded the last of the things onto the truck.

“Where is Miley and Aunt Terri?” I asked, looking around.

“They had business so they can’t come watch us leave” Mom explained.

          I sighed and looked at my house one more time, staring at its naked windows and empty bedrooms. Thinking about all of the times in this place and all the memories it held. I tucked my hot pink cell phone into my back pocket, just as Mom blew the horn on the U-haul.

“Come on we have to beat traffic” she called to me.

          I sighed once more, turned and jogged slowly across the lawn. I hopped into the U-haul and we were off. I watched my old house disappear slowly in the side view mirror as we went over the hill and turned onto the main street. I leaned my head a little out of the open window and let the wind blow violently through my curly red locks. Every now and then I looked into the side view mirror, examining myself. My stomach lurked with pain and despair and I cringed, closing my eyes tight. It was hard to look in a mirror now days, because I looked so much like my father. I had his fiery hair, his inviting smile, his scattered freckles and his small ears. I had nothing of my mother’s, but her shape and blue eyes. Mom was kind of tall, model like slim, with blue eyes and chestnut hair; her smile was more professional than free and her cheeks rosy.

          I was always closer with Dad than mom too, but that’s to be expected, what girl isn’t Daddy’s little girl? After about a two hour drive we finally pulled up to a gated community. Mom pulled out a card, slid it into the front entrance box and pulled it out. After a few minutes the gates rattled and soon parted on either side of a cobblestone road.

“I have a card for you too honey, for when you get home from school” Mom explained.

This obviously meant that I was either catching a bus or driving to school every day. We did a few twists and turns on the sand colored cobblestone road; for some reason it made me feel like Dorothy. Finally we pulled up into the concrete driveway of a two story house. The main room downstairs had a bay window, as well as the bedroom above it, which also had a balcony. The house was painted a magnolia yellow and white color and the porch stretched from the garage to the other end of the house. At the end of the porch was a chair swing, swaying calmly in the gentle wind. The front porch banister was decorated on either side with shrubbery that winded around from root to tip and then ended with a small cobblestone sidewalk ending at the driveway. I had to admit the house looked three times better than our old house, but it still wasn’t home.

“Come on we have a lot of work to do, and only a few hours before it gets dark” Mom said.

          She turned and headed for the truck. I couldn’t help, but notice how much colder it was here than what I was used too. I walked to my Mom’s 2001 Ford Escape that was attached to the back of the U-haul, reached in and got my jacket out of the front passenger seat. I put it on and began helping Mom unload our things and take them into the house. As the afternoon soon diminished into night, Mom and I were standing in the back yard roasting marshmallows over the grill; it was our way of celebrating. I turned my marshmallow carefully, trying not to burn it while Mom rocked back and forth in the hammock we put up and looked at the sky. It was these moments when I could tell she was thinking about Dad.

 

“Thinking about Dad?” I asked.

“Yea.”

I put my marshmallow into my mouth and walked over to her.

“I miss him too.”

“You know your Dad was usually the one who made all the big decisions; even if he were alive he would have decided if this move was right or not.”

“You know it’s not too late to pack up and go back, if we leave by four, we’ll get there just in time for me to get to school.”

“Oh no, we’re not going anywhere.”

“Well I tried.”

“I’m going on to bed; don’t stay out here too late, just because you’re out of school for a week.”

“Yea, yea.”