Madison's Journey

Chapter 3

Saturday morning, three days after Madison’s mom had left, Madison was sitting on her bed with her schoolbooks scattered around her and music playing on her iPod. She had kept herself busy with school, homework and babysitting over the last few days, but today was Saturday, which meant no school, no babysitting, no distractions. As she sat on her bed, the idea of homework still faintly on her mind, she became suddenly overwhelmed with fear and panic. What was she going to do? Who was going to take care of her, buy her food and pay the bills? Where was her mom? How could she do this? Madison was her daughter. Mothers were supposed to take care of their children, not abandon them! 

“Oh my god!” She cried as her heart began to beat faster. “Mom abandoned me.” Her cheeks flushed red and hot as a wave of panic took hold of her. She started gulping for air, a lump forming in her throat. She laid back against her overstuffed pillows, closed her eyes and tried to push the panic down. She knew she needed to think and not let her fears overwhelm her. Maybe she was just being dramatic, maybe her mom just needed a break and would be back after the weekend. Yeah, that sounded about right. Her mom wouldn’t just leave. Madison sat up and shook her head.

“Geez, Mads. Talk about a drama queen.” Madison laughed at herself as she tried to focus on her homework. She told herself that everything would be back to normal on Monday. However, in the far reaches of her mind, the tiny, but terrifying thought that her mom may not come back was starting to grow.

Later that day, Madison walked downtown to the local burger shop. She had decided that she needed a back up plan. She had almost reassured herself that her mom would be back by Monday, but she had also convinced herself that she needed to keep living as if her mom was still around. That involved making sure all the bills were paid. She figured if she could get a weekend job, that combined with her babysitting job would pay the bills. She had found the notebook where her mom kept her payments and bill information and had spent an hour pouring over it and calculating how much money she would need. After she had done her calculating, she was thankful for the meals she ate at Lisa and Bill’s during the week. If she could get the job at Burger Town, she reckoned she would make just enough to get by. She wasn’t sure how possible it would be to pretend her mom was still around, but Madison had no intention of telling anyone the truth. She didn’t want to end up in foster care, so no matter what it took, she was going to try her hardest to make this work.

A week later, Madison’s mom still hadn’t returned. She had secured a job at Burger Town, so that was one worry out of the way. She had been concerned about her mom, thinking that something may have happened to her, but three days ago when she had called her mom again, the voicemail message had been different than the last time she had called. So, Madison knew that at the very least her mom was alive.

She started her first shift at Burger Town that weekend. She would be working the day shift every Saturday and Sunday, which was exactly what she had hoped for. It was going to be difficult to keep up with her studies, but she was determined to make everything work. As she got ready for work on Saturday morning, excitement coursed through her body. She felt independent. She had spent the week hoping that her mom would show up, but eventually decided she’d be okay on her own, she had to be. For now, this was her life and if she was being perfectly honest, she was enjoying the freedom. It was nice to not have to deal with her mom’s constant mood changes or the parade of men. She did miss her and was worried about her, but she was going to try to keep everything exactly the same for when her mom did return. 

As she walked home after work that day, tired and sore, she thought about the way things were going. So far, she hadn’t had any trouble hiding her mom’s disappearance. She had never realized how uninvolved her mom had been in her day to day life. It made Madison think of the old days, when her parents were in the stands at every one of her ball games, cheering her on.

“That’s my little girl,” her dad would say proudly to everyone in the stands every time she got on base or struck a batter out. Her mom and dad would spend hours at the ball field with her, practicing her pitching and hitting. She remembered with a smile how her mom would stand behind her dad pretending to be the umpire. “Strike three, you’re outta there.” It would make them all laugh.

“Those were the good old days,” Madison thought as she wiped a few tears from her cheeks. Life had certainly changed in the past two years. Now there was no time for ball, and Maddie missed it almost as much as she missed her dad. But ball was part of her old life, and she had tried to forget about it like she had tried to forget so many other things since her dad’s death.

When Madison walked through her front door, she held her breath. Every time she came home, she had a faint hope that her mom would be waiting for her. But today, like every other day over the past two weeks, Madison was greeted by silence. She showered quickly and then started on her schoolwork. Amy had invited her for dinner that night and she wanted to get as much work done before she went. She had thought about not going but she enjoyed seeing Amy, and the prospect of a meal with the Fernie’s was hard to turn down. Amy’s family was like her second family, she had spent time with them for as long as she could remember. Mr. and Mrs. Fernie had become like her second parents.

An hour later, she walked the two blocks to Amy’s house. The sun was shining, and Madison smiled at the sound of the birds singing in the trees. She turned the corner onto Amy’s street and her grin grew when she saw Amy’s house. It was bright blue, with a white picket fence and a swing hanging from the tree in the front yard. It was the happiest looking house on the block, and it filled Madison with a sense of joy every time she saw it. Her and Amy had many happy memories in that house, and she loved going there. When Amy flung the door open, Madison was immediately enveloped by the smell of chocolate chip cookies. She took a huge sniff, enjoying the aroma. Amy’s mom made the best cookies ever, and Madison knew there would be a container full for her to take home when she left that night. 

“Finally! You’re here,” Amy practically yelled at Madison. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you all day. Come on. Mom said dinner won’t be ready for at least twenty minutes.” Amy grabbed Madison’s arm and virtually dragged her up the stairs. 

“Brad called me,” Amy blurted out as soon as Madison closed the bedroom door. Brad Campbell was Amy’s crush. She had been crushing on him since the first day of high school just three years earlier.

Madison giggled at her friend’s excitement. “Really, when? Why?”

“Last night. We talked for like an hour,” Amy flopped on the mass of pillows laying haphazardly on her bed with a dreamy look in her eyes. “He’s so gorgeous.”

Madison climbed onto the bed beside her. “Tell me everything.”

“Well, first of all, he has the sexiest voice.”

Madison laughed. “Oh yeah?”

“Yup, and he’s so nice. He said he thought I looked pretty yesterday, isn’t that amazing? He asked me all about my day, and what I’m doing this weekend. I thought maybe he was going to ask me out, but he didn’t. But he did say that he’d see me at lunch on Monday morning. So, that’s good right? Do you think that he wants to eat lunch with me?”

“Maybe.”

“Yeah, I think that’s what it means. Oh my god, lunch with Brad Campbell. It’s like a date.” Madison laughed. She was going to argue with Amy, but she couldn’t bear to dash her hopes. And maybe it was kind of like a date. As they were discussing Brad and Amy’s potential cafeteria lunch date, Amy’s older brother, Colin banged loudly on the door.

“Dinner.”

The girls made their way downstairs as the scent of a delicious pot roast wafted through the house. The conversation around the Fernie’s table that night was lively, like usual. Mr. Fernie sat at the head of the table while Mrs. Fernie made herself busy putting enormous amounts of food on everyone’s plate. It was a picture-perfect family dinner and the Fernie’s were the picture-perfect family. All four members of the Fernie family had blond hair and blue eyes. Mr. Fernie’s hair was starting to thin out a little, and Mrs. Fernie’s hair had streaks of silver in it, but they were still a handsome looking couple. They were tall and slender, like their children, and it wasn’t difficult to see where Amy and Colin got their good looks from. Mrs. Fernie was a stay at home wife and mother and reminded Madison of the mother’s from those old fifty TV shows; she was never seen without an apron and her curly hair was always tied in a neat bun on the top of her head. She spent her days cooking and baking, and Mr. Fernie joked that he had to go to the gym everyday so that he didn’t gain five hundred pounds.

“So, Maddie, Amy told us that you got a new job.” Madison looked up from the roll she was buttering and smiled at Mrs. Fernie.

Her face lit up immediately; she had been waiting all afternoon to tell someone about her day. “I did. I started today at Burger Town. It was awesome.” Both of the older Fernie’s laughed, while Amy looked at her like she had two heads. 

“Mads, you’re crazy. Who wants to have a job?” Sherry and Dale looked at their daughter and sighed. It was not going to be easy to get that one out into the work force. Amy was far more interested in her social life than in manual labor or any kind of work. She didn’t even babysit; she was not very good at taking care of others.

“No, it was fun to get out and make my own money. I feel so independent, and my boss and all the people I work with seem really nice.” She took a bite of roast beef and continued, “Toby, he was training me, said I did really well, and I was even working the till all by myself by the end of the day. I did the till and bagged food; it was so busy, and the day went by so fast. Oh, and I get a free meal when I work, which is awesome.”

Colin looked up from his plate and pushed a strand of his blond shaggy hair behind his ear. It was starting to get long, and with his blue eyes, he was starting to look like a California surfer. “Free burgers? That’s awesome!”

Everyone laughed at his enthusiasm. Colin loved food more than anything else. Colin looked around the table. “Yeah, okay. Laugh it up. But I do know what you mean, Mad. My job at the garage is pretty awesome too.”

Colin was a budding mechanic. Ever since he was little, he had loved cars and was always fascinated with how they worked. Most of Madison’s childhood memories of Colin were of him covered in oil and dirt, or his dad yelling at him because he had taken apart his bike again. Even today, his clothes were stained with oil or grease or something dirty. It was just part of who he was. He had taught himself a lot about mechanical things and had gotten pretty good at putting things back together. That was partly out of self preservation; he had to learn to repair the things he took apart so that his dad wouldn’t kill him. He had started working at a local garage on the weekends and had a real knack for it. He was in auto shop class in school and was planning on taking the automotive mechanics program in college after he graduated. 

Madison beamed at him, and then recounted her day with great enthusiasm. “I did make a few mistakes on orders when it got busy, but Toby said that was normal.”

Mrs. Fernie smiled at Madison. “Sounds like Toby is a good trainer.”

She nodded, “Oh yeah. Definitely.”

“Your mom must be very proud of you, Maddie. I know we are.” Mr. Fernie’s comment took her by surprise, and she fought the urge to spew her water all over the table.

“Oh, um, yeah, yes…” she sputtered, trying to recover and choking on the water. “Oh yeah, she is.” The Fernie parents exchanged a look but neither spoke. They focused their attention back on their plates.

“Well, Maddie, it sounds like you had a wonderful day. Maybe you can try to convince this one that having a job is a fun thing,” Mr. Fernie lightly punched Amy on the arm, and she scoffed at his suggestion.

“No way, dad. I have no desire to spend my weekends working. Not yet anyways. I want to focus on school.” No one at the table believed that, but they didn’t argue with her. Amy’s interests involved boys, shopping and very little schoolwork.

The conversation soon moved on to other things as Colin regaled them with stories about the senior class prank, and Amy’s mom and dad feigned slight annoyance at the idea of their son being involved in such a thing. It was all very harmless, and they couldn’t help laughing with the girls as he described the principal’s reaction at finding his car wrapped in Saran Wrap. Colin and his crew of friends were the class pranksters and were always coming up with new inventive, but harmless, ways to get a laugh. It had been a nice evening, and she was sad when Mr. Fernie drove her home. She went to sleep that night thinking about the Fernie’s and her wonderful evening with them. It was the perfect evening, and she was happier than she had been since that awful night two weeks earlier.