Exodus...

Surprises to a child, as a general rule, are supposed to be fun and awesome. Keep that in mind. My parents apparently had neglected to google this fact, and it has cost us children dearly.

While driving with my uncle and his wife, I began to daydream where they could possibly be taking me for my birthday. I gathered that I was a pretty special child to get such preferential treatment!

Now, quickly, lets reflect. Remember when I said that I was going to be an only child, theoretically speaking? That was because my uncle and his wife had two children, but one was only like 2 or 3 and the other was newborn. Said children were dropped off at respective care takers before we embarked one what I could only assume was going to be the BEST birthday ever! But then while driving, I began to ponder something...why, if this was to be a kiddie surprise, were we dropping off the other children? And then, something settled in the pit of my stomach that I refused to acknowledge the second that I realized it was the truth. My uncle, nor his wife, had spoken two words that I can recall and I realized then that my best birthday ever had come to an abrupt end some two hours previous. I was going home.

Now, I realize that that may sound like I didn't want to go home. That I didn't miss my family. These assumptions would be wrong. I missed my family greatly, and in fact had cried myself to sleep a few times during that month. But even a ten year old knows when they're going into a bad situation. I was one of them.

We drove for what seemed like years. Through the mountains we traveled in the middle of the night. There is nothing spookier than a full moonlit night in dark mountains. *shudders* I finally decided to ask where we were going. My uncle just replied with a mixture of anger and sadness, "home". I got a little excited 'cause he told me that we were meeting my mom somewhere in WV. The only really clear thing that i remember that night before getting to my mother was that I so wanted to ask my uncle what the phone call had been about. But I think a small part of me knew that it was much more than I could wrap my head around. Little did I know that I was going to be all but forced to wrap my head around it in the days, months, and years to come. Childhood innocence is tragically taken for granted until one realizes too late that it's been torn away and prematurely replaced with adulthood.

Around three in the morning we reached a McDonald's somewhere in the foot hills of WV. We pulled into the gas station that it was attached to and my uncle told me to rest, he wasn't sure how long until my mother would be arriving. Yeah, right! I didn't and eventually saw a familiar bronze colored Chevy S-10 pull into the gas station. My mother had arrived!

I could barely contain my excitement! I had all but forgotten my foreboding sense of dread that I had been fostering since the evening before. When she pulled up to us and got out of the car I couldn't get out of the car fast enough to run into her arms. She was and still is so beautiful to me and I never wanted to leave her again. Then just when my reunion didn't seem like it could get any better out of the car came flying a giant cotton ball! Butchy! My beloved terrier mix and his cute as all get out curly Q of a tail! He was by far the happiest person to see me! Sure, my mom missed me like any good mother would, but a loyal animal loves you like none other! I would turn to that dog more often than not pretty soon.

We said our goodbye's to my uncle and his wife and my mom, with inexplicable tears in her eyes thanked them over and over again. I didn't know why, I guess I assumed that she was just that happy to see me. She got back in the car, and drove home. We talked the whole 4 hr drive back. I tried to nap in her lap but I was keyed up and rarin' to go! So when we eventually did roll into our drive way at 7:30 in the morning on July 1st, 1993, I had forgotten the circumstances that had brought me back so early. My brother's and sister came tearing out of the house in the morning glow, all still in their pajama's, with their bed heads still evident. It was a joyous reunion. One that I have turned to in times of great frustration with one or the other since.

My father was up and kindly ordered my mother and I to go to bed since it had been a long night. So, we did. And we slept for 12 or 13 hrs. Something like that. All I remember is that when we got up, everyone had been put to bed and dad was either in bed too, or he had gone to work. I can't really recall if mom and I woke at the same time or if she woke me up. Any how, mom asked me if I was hungry, and of course, I was. So while our dinner cooked, we sat in the blanching glow of the over the counter fluorescent light. She began to play with my hair. I loved it when she did that. It was like a bonding exercise, it soothed me and now, looking back, I realize that was mom's master plan. She was gearing up to drop THE atomic bomb of all childhood's on my still groggy head