The World Beyond

Chapter 1-2

Meghan and I exchanged glances knowingly.

"You didn"t have to, mom. Thank you for the cake. It"s good to be back."

"Give me two seconds while I light the candles. Go put your bag down in your room so you can come to sit down at the table."

I turned and walked down the hall, bag in tow. Just past the bathroom door on the right was the door to my room. I opened the door and set the bag to the side without looking in, and returned to the kitchen, where I found Meghan and my mother sitting at the table. My father was still out in the living room watching tv.

"Sit down. Sit down. Mark! Come in here before the candles are blown out!"

"Maurine, just bring me a piece of cake once it"s cut!" A little bit of anger in my father"s voice. It was obvious to me that he wanted to avoid getting up and entering the kitchen.

A little bit of enthusiasm drained from my mother"s face as she glanced toward the entrance to the living room. A smile returned to her face as she noticed my observations.

"Blow it out! Welcome home!"

I blew out the candles and sat there staring at the cake.

"I thought candles were only for birthday cakes?" I asked playfully.

"Candles are for any special occasion I want to use them for. Now, tell me stories. I want to hear everything."

As we sat around the table eating our slices of cake, we talked about some of my experiences at school. The friends I"ve made, my lack of love life after my ex, and how my classes were going. We"d spent so much time talking that my father was able to come in, drop off his dish, and bed head. It started to get late into the evening, and my eyes began drooping with every passing moment.

"I think we should all bed head, mom." My sister finally piped up after seeing the exhaustion starting to affect me.

I heartily agreed to the proposition to be able to get some sleep. As we finished the conversation, I could tell that my mother had been trying to postpone heading to bed as long as possible but had agreed once she noticed the time. I helped clean up the table and headed down the hall into my room. Once I had a chance to turn on my light, I discovered quite a bit had changed since the last time I was here. I wouldn"t be able to say that this was my room anymore as it became obvious that my mother had moved in and been sleeping there. Meghan stepped up behind me and quietly whispered into my ear.

"She and Dad have been sleeping in two separate rooms for a while now."

I turned back with this sudden news waking me up. I hadn"t heard of any of this while away. I became more aware that my parents weren"t in the best places at the moment.

"Is this okay? I could have tried to stay at a hotel or something while I"m here."

"You know, Mom. She would never have let you do that. It"ll only be for a couple of days. Don"t worry too much about it. Goodnight."

She turned and walked down the hall towards her room. Her words rang in my head a bit as I closed the door and sat on the bed. Some of my things were still here. Old trophies from when I played sports in high school. Some of the pictures I had on the walls of me and my friends were still where I had left them. A pile of books was sitting by a nightstand that was certainly new to the room, and the bed"s comforter was certainly newer. It was recently updated when my mother moved here.

I tried to follow my sister"s advice and not let it bother me for the night. I decided I needed to find a better arrangement after today. As soon as my head touched the pillow, I passed out.

The birds outside the window were the first to wake me up in the morning. I had forgotten to set an alarm on my phone. I had forgotten to charge my phone entirely. I plugged my phone into a charger and left it on the nightstand while I got up to prepare for the day.

I could hear voices out in the living room. The nostalgia of being home quickly wore off with my night"s sleep. It was an odd feeling. It reminded me of my first day in the dorms at school and trying to get used to a new environment again. I got up and took a shower to begin the day. Washing away a lot of the airport smell from the day before. It felt good. I had brought only a few outfits for my short stay. I had never thought to pack anything more than just a few days worth of clothes.

I looked out the window. The sky was overcast, with fog surrounding the house. I wasn"t too surprised. The rain from the night before certainly helped, and living along the coast, we sometimes had a few days of rainy weather moving in from the ocean. I remember a few years ago when just about every other day was filled with rain of some kind. I don"t remember seeing the sun once that summer. I ruined many of my plans with friends to spend time at the beach.

I left the bedroom and headed down the hall. The light from the day was coming through the windows of the living room and kitchen, giving a much more lively atmosphere than the night before. My father had already left for work. My sister was lying on the couch, her feet up against the wall, texting someone. My mother was down the hall behind me, rummaging through one of the closets, looking for something.

"Good morning," I said as I entered the living room.

My sister looked a little upset when she saw me entering the room.

"I"ve been texting you to get up all morning."

I looked over at the clock under the television. The time showed to be 11:50.

"Sorry. The phone died, and I forgot to charge it. Anything to eat?"

"We have some pop tarts in the cupboard." My mother called down the hall.

I immediately hopped up and began rummaging through the cupboards looking for the box. Behind me, Mom carried some blankets and an extra pillow and set them on the dining room table. Our eyes met briefly while I turned around, and all she gave me was a smile.

"Meghan!" She called to the living room. "What are you doing today?"

This was, of course, the trap. I looked toward the living room as I ate my food. Meghan"s voice rang out from the other side of the wall.

"Nothi… crap. I mean. I"

"I heard you say nothing. Why not take your brother around town to see some of his friends?"

“But I… erg… fine…”

She sounded disappointed that she hadn"t been quick enough to devise an excuse. I learned beyond the wall and told her I would pay for gas. Her eyes were already trained on the location I was peaking around. If I could die from a glare, it would be the lasers coming out of her eyes melting my brain. She got up from the couch, still glaring into my soul.

"Ugh." The sound of deep disappointment as she walked by me. "I"ll need to get ready first. Put on shoes. We"ll be leaving soon."

She stomped off in the direction of her room.

"She"ll be fine." My mother said behind me.

I turned around to see her still watching out in the direction that Meghan had gone. She had a look of slight sadness in her eyes before looking back at me and smiling.

"We need to make your time here a good one. Now go and get your shoes on. She isn"t wait long for you if you"re not ready."

I smiled back, began walking toward the hall, and stopped myself from getting too far. I turned around to see her fidgeting with the blanket and pillow.

"Everything okay, Mom?"

She looked back at me, looked back at the blanket she was messing with, and finally took a look back with a smile on her face.

"Everything is fine. Now go get ready."

I took a moment to let a bit of the silence settle before finally nodding and turning to go down the hall and grab my shoes. I checked the charge on my phone, and it looked to be only at 15%. We should only be gone for a few hours. There really shouldn"t be any need to keep my phone on me. I set my phone back down to let it finish charging. It took me a second to realize how we would contact anyone if I hadn"t had my phone on me. I picked up my phone and placed it in my pocket.

"Meghan, do you have a charger in your car?"

"Ugh! Yeah!"

I should be fine. With it foggy outside, I threw on a light jacket. I could hear my sister move from her room to the bathroom and shut the door harder than usual. This was usually a part of our relationship while I was still at home, and I knew that I was the same way with her when I had the car, and she needed to go places, too. I quietly left the bedroom and sat on the living room couch. The overcast daylight came through the living room window. The only real noise came from the kitchen; it sounded like things were moving around.

"Need any help in there, Mom?"

"No, Hunny, I"m fine. Your sister should be out soon. You should start the car for her so you"re all ready to go."

I looked around for the usual key ring where we usually had placed the keys. On it, I found one massive bunch of keychains with one or two keys hidden within the bundle that I hadn"t noticed the night before. I grabbed the key chain blob and leaned over in the kitchen door frame to show it to my mom to confirm this. She heard the jingling of all the keychains and turned around from what she was doing and saw me.

"Yes. That"s the one."

I glanced down at it, surprised that so many keychains could fit together. It had to have been at least a couple of pounds.

"I know. She says it makes it easier to find." She finally said knowingly

I walked into the kitchen briefly and kissed her on the cheek.

"Thanks, Mom. I will see you later."

A smile came across her face as she waved goodbye and returned to what she was doing. I went out to the car, unlocked the door, and started it before returning to the passenger seat. I moved around more of the pile of trash in the foot area now that I could see where it all was. In the back seat were a bunch of bags, extra sweatshirts, and clothes that she seemed to keep around. After a few more minutes, she finally left the house and got into the car. She had put on some of her better, nicer-looking clothes and some extra makeup.

"Dressed to the nines, I see. Oh, aren"t I lucky?"

Her eyes rolled again as she threw the car into drive. Without me saying a word, she began driving us to one of my favorite places to hang out with my friends after we had gotten out of school. I kept looking out of the passenger window. This fog would just not let up. It was thick like soup. I rolled down the window to stick my hand into it. It had substance. Instead of being dragged along like a wind current, it felt like I was pushing my hand through cotton.