The morning looked like any other, except it wasn’t. Today we moved:I was leaving home and all I’ve ever known. I was never to come home from school again and throw myself on that wooden floor, mahogany gleaming warm with sun, now just a bare floor. I walked into my – no longer mine – room one last time, spinning around on the balls of my feet to take it all in – to leave it all – one last time. I no longer live here, this is no longer my room. I’ll no longer be able to call this my home.
“Lauren, come on, it’s time to go, the truck is loaded and ready to go!” called my mom, Audrey from the front deck.
“One more minute? Please?” I pleaded, clinging to the doorframe.
I threw myself down on the floor where my rug would be, except this time I had a really hard landing, but I didn’t care. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to pretend that it was just another day, tried to make the move go away, tried to undo the reality of the situation: I was moving away from all I’ve ever known to uncharted waters.
“It’s time to go! Get one last goodbye and I should see ya out front in a minute,” called Audrey, trying to talk over the roar of the moving truck’s engine, getting ready to leave.
I nodded even though there was no one to see as I blinked back tears, but was unsuccessful. Fat tears rolled down my cheeks and I watched as three drops landed in a perfect triangle, pointing towards the door. Heavy with sobs I said goodbye to my room – my great room that is no longer mine – looking back at everything and nothing as I shut the door..
“I’m here!” I shout over the rumbling engine.
“Great! Are you ready?” asked Audrey who appeared behind me.
“No. But I suppose I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” I reply, sighing sadly at the fact that it’s now about time to leave.
After double-checking that we left nothing inside the house, making sure we had enough snacks in the car, and extra reassurances, we said our final goodbyes to the house. With tearshed we all pulled out of the driveway as I repeated a mantra in my head: Everything is going to be okay. So for a while I tried kicking back and relaxing for the long road ahead because: Everything is going to be okay.
Oh, how wrong I was. Everything was going smoothly until we heard the sputter of an engine and everything just stopped. We were now stuck in the middle of nowhere in the sweltering heat! While Audrey went to check on the engine (even though she knows nothing about cars), I was in the backseat thinking one thing: What are we going to do now? Worst-case scenario we are stuck out here and help never arrives; we’ll run out of food, and then we’ll die of hunger if not heatstroke.
“It’s fried up alright,” says Audrey “Better call for help. The area’s not beautiful, but it’s still kind of nice, you can check it out if you want.”
With nothing better to do I immediately unbuckle myself and start to explore the area. The ground was barren and red, there was almost no vegetation except for a few dry bushes and shrubs, and the heat was almost unbearable. I just felt like I was lost in a sea of sweltering heat waves that come up to my neck, I’m drowning, and then I collapse.
I open my eyes to see Audrey nowhere in sight, I turn my head, and then I see a school bus.
This bus isn’t shiny or new, it stands on blocks, wheels nowhere in sight and is somehow overgrown with vines spilling out of shattered windows with rusty frames. It seemed out of place, thick with vegetation while the area was dry, as if it hadn’t seen rain for days.
Suddenly, the doors screech open, and a girl my age steps out. Her hair is a frizzy, red mess, eyes like acorns, dressed for the weather.
“Yer not Eloise.” she said, face all scrunched up.
“I’m Lauren.” I replied dryly. “Who’s Eloise?”
“Sister, said she’d be back by sunset.” Melancholy spread over her face as she gazed out to the distance. “I’ve had a lot of sunsets without’er now.” Her face did not change as a single tear rolled down her cheek. “But why’er ya here? Don’t they tell you to be home by dinner?”
“I-I don’t have a home, well I do, but I doubt it’ll feel the same,”I sadly replied
“You too, huh?” she went inside the bus, out of instinct, I followed. She chose a seat towards the back, and I sat down beside her.
“Leaving home is probably one of the most daring things I did, yet I never got to where I was going.”
“So what’s with the bus? Is it yours?”
Laughing, she said, “Stole it actually, my sister and I, we ran away. But the tank is empty and now I’m stuck here.”
“Have you tried leaving it behind?”
“Can’t now.”
“Why?”
“It’s become home, me and this bus, terrifying at first, but now, I can’t live anywhere else.”
We open the hatch and climb to the roof, just in time for sunset.
“Change isn’t so bad, is it now?”
I closed my eyes, nodding, when they opened, I was on the ground.
“Whaddaya doing down there?” Audrey’s blue eyes peered down at me.
The bus and the girl were gone; leaving no trace at all.
“I fell.”
“Better get up, I got us a tow truck for the car.” Helping me up, she took my hand and led me towards the truck.
I glanced back…
…Nothing. She was really gone. Was she-no, couldn’t have been-oh well, who knows? Maybe this move won’t be so bad after all.