The Strength of Amber

    "Wake up and pack your things. We have to go." I wake with a start to see Mom's face hovering above me. She looks worried but I don't know what is wrong. "What is going on?" I say as I rub the sleep from my eyes. I was 12 and a half then, the night Mom decided we could not wait any longer to leave for our new home in South Carolina.      I didn't want to go. There was nothing for me in South Carolina but heat and bugs and trees. I wanted to stay in Mentone, CA where I could walk down the street and pick figs, oranges, prickly pears, and avocados. I didn't want to leave my friends, what few I had anyway. I was going to miss riding my bike to the corner store with my allowance to buy homemade beef jerky and Sprite every weekend. Most of all, I was going to miss my sister. She was 10 years older than me and in college, so she wouldn't be making the move with us.      "Come on Amber, get up." Mom said in an aggravated tone. "We need to be on our way. Pack your things quickly and get them in the car." I am too tired to question as I look over at the clock to see 2:30 am. I get up and change from my PJs and start packing my things.      Before the sun rises we are on our way. Mom in her car and her boyfriend driving the Van with the pull behind trailer. We had every spare inch of the car, van, and trailer packed with every worldly possession we owned as we would never again be returning to stay in Mentone. As we drive through the night I try to make mental pictures of everything that is going by me. There's my best friend's house, light blue with a tan roof and white shutters. A small brick wall surrounds the property, painted the same blue as the house, with white fencing on top, and a pool to the side of the house, kidney-shaped, with a spiral slide going into the deep end. I remember all the fun my friend and I had in the summers swimming in that pool. I didn't even get to say goodbye. Then the turn off to head to Big Bear Mountain as we head out of town and towards Yucca Valley as the greenery around us slowly fades to a browned landscape full of windmills, train tracks, and cactus.      We continue driving the full day, stopping only to eat and fill up on gas. I am already tired of being in this car with only my baby brother, who had just turned 2 that past March, and Mom. Since GPS wasn't a thing back then, I was the navigator. Mom had taught me how to read maps at a young age so I would never get lost. I am reading the map when I hear a sound coming from the engine and hear Mom curse. It always shocks me to hear her curse because it happens so infrequently. Old "Ciera," our nickname for Mom's used Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, had finally given out. We quickly transferred as much as we could manage into the van and trailer, left Ciera, and continued on our way.     That night we had made it to Arizona before finally stopping to rest. We did not have the money for a hotel room, so we found a nice camping area and dragged out our pillows and blankets to sleep on the ground under the stars. I will never forget the sky that night. I had never in my life seen so many stars. I didn't even know it was possible for there to be that many. I could see the entire Milky Way before me, its white speckled band stretching across the sky as far as you could see and I was left with nothing to do but stare in awe at the sight before me. Then the stars began to fall...1, 2, 3...I counted as though each was a sheep sent to help comfort me and put me to sleep and the wish I made on each was to let me go back home, fruitless as I know that was. I don't remember the number I got to before my eyes became too heavy to force open, but when I woke it was morning and we were back on the road.      Several days, and a broken trailer axle resulting in us having to leave almost all of our belonging on the side of the road later, we arrive....in Possum Kingdom....are you serious? Now I know I am in hell.