Falling For You Just Isn't The Same

“It’s about time you woke up! Jesus I could have swore you would never wake up again. We went through so much turbulence I thought you had died.” My dad said over the sound of the turbines.

“What time is it?” I asked in a groggy tone, wiping my eyes with my wrist.

“It’s time for you to get up because we’re almost here.”

“Sweet!” I said excitedly, suddenly awake. “How far are we away from Phoenix?”

“The pilot came on the intercom five minutes before you woke up. He said we’d be landing in the next ten minutes. That makes it five minutes until we land.”

“Geeze dad, you are such a math whiz! You’re going to be the next Albert Einstein if you don’t watch yourself.” I replied sarcastically. All I really wanted to do was get to Phoenix and move into our new home. Maybe my dad will actually allow me to fix my room up just the way I want it.

Sure enough, about five minutes later the pilot came on to the intercom once again, “Good morning passengers. We are beginning out descent now, so please fasten your seat belts until we have touched down. Thank you.” I felt the force of our drop as soon as he had gotten off the intercom. I just kept telling myself that everything is going to be okay and I’ll be on firm ground once again in a matter of minutes.

I closed my eyes and tried to even my breathing, rubbing my temples to help soothe my anxiety. I felt a little bump when we touched down, and that was it. The flight was finally over, and I could relax. My dad lightly tapped my shoulder, seemingly afraid to startle or scare me, “Hey, are you alright?”

“Hell yea! At least I am now that I’m on solid ground. Come on dad, let’s go!”

“Doesn’t someone sound more than excited to go?” he commented to himself.

We went to get our luggage from the conveyor belt, picked it up, and checked to make sure everything was counted for. I then walked quickly to the end of the terminal, with my dad behind me. I wanted to get out of this place and finally settle down and make a new start. However, I started to wonder, how were we going to get to our house without a car? So I asked inquisitively, “Hey dad, how are we supposed to get home without anything to drive?”

“Well, there’s a car rental store that should be around here somewhere. I’m going to rent a car until Joe brings the car here. He needed a truck to move some stuff around, so him and Susanna are going to bring it over when he’s done with it. It doesn’t help that they want to see the house.”

“Well, that makes a ton of sense.” I replied.

I caught a glimpse of the Enterprise sign on the outside area of the airport, and pointed it out to my dad. We made our way over there with our luggage, and I took a seat in the lobby while my dad spoke with the secretary and filled out the paperwork. I wasn’t really paying attention to my dad either. All of that paperwork crap bores the hell out of me. I only came to senses when my dad started walking away from the counter and waved a hand in my face asking, “Hello? Is anyone home?”

Blinking once, I responded, “Yea dad, I’m here. Is everything ready to go?”

“You bet it is. Are you ready to get going?”

“Dad, I’ve been ready since we left home in Kentucky. Let’s do this!”

He led me to the lot where our car was parked. He didn’t spend a fortune renting a car, but he got a pretty nice Civic. At first glance, it seemed like a rich older person’s car. The exterior was plain white with tinted windows. It had what looked like a ground kit, but it didn’t really look sporty.

The inside of the car was totally different. The interior was completely black leather and carried that particular new car smell. It had a satellite radio, heated seats, and an AV jack for plugging in USB drives or an iPod. The console was a sleek black plastic with chrome accents. Overall, this car was sweet.

“Looks to me like this kitten has a little bit of roar in her. Shall we head out of here and go home?”

“Let’s hear this kitty purr!” I said, excitement escalating in my voice. My dad started the engine, which ignited with a deafening roar. He put the car in drive and peeled out of the car lot, squealing the tires as he turned the corner onto the highway. I figured by how my dad drove this car, we weren’t going to be on the road long. Sure enough, it only took us about ten minutes to reach the house.

It wasn’t near the main roads, but it wasn’t that far away from them that it took forever to get places. He pulled up in front of the house and asked, “So, whatcha think?”

“Well, at first glance, it just looks like a plain old house. It’s not that big, but I supposed it isn’t that small either. The grass could use a bit of TLC, the bushes need to be trimmed, and the weeds really need to be extirpated. Anything else you would like me to critique?”

“Okay inspector, I suppose we could take care of those things once we get settled. How about we go inside and get things settled? I’m sure you’re dying to inspect the inside as well.”

I was the first to reach the front door. I just couldn’t wait to see the inside, and the suspense was killing me. I motioned to my dad with my hand to hurry up and get to the door, but he took his time. He lazily walked up the driveway, onto the sidewalk, and eventually to the front door.

“C’mon dad, open it already!” I said, bouncing up and down like a little child.

“Now where did I put that key?” my dad asked himself.

“You’re kidding? You didn’t lose the key did you?”

“Nah, I didn’t, I was just joking around to make you suffer just a little bit longer.”

“Gosh dad, you are so mean!” I said as I punched him on the arm.

“Ow Si, watch yourself! You’re stronger than you realize, and one day you’re going to put your old man in the hospital.” He said jokingly.

I knew my dad couldn’t get hurt. He’s strong and healthy. Nothing in the world could hurt him. To me, he was invincible. He pulled the door key out of the left pocket of his worn-out jeans, and inserted it into the deadbolt lock. He turned the key, and I could hear the lock slide out from its hole in the other side of the door. He did the same on the door knob, and opened the door a little too slowly.

The first thing I noticed even before stepping into the house was that it is a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. Immediately after entering the house, I could tell we were standing in the living room. The walls were painted an olive green color and there was a ceiling fan in the middle of the room. Directly to the right of me was the kitchen, and to the left was the hallway. I suspected that this was where the rooms and bathrooms were located.

“Dibs on first use of the can!” I yelled as I ran toward the hallway, searching every door until I found the bathroom. I ran into two bedrooms along the way, one on the right and one on the left. The one on the right looked to me like it was the master bedroom. I noticed that it had its own bathroom. The room on the left was about average size; not too small, but not overly large either.

The next door on the left took me to the place where I wanted to go; the bathroom. I went inside, locking the door behind me. I didn't really use it; I just went in to check it out. There was a marble sink with chrome colored faucets. Above the sink was a mirror. The toilet was hideous. It had a ring of mineral deposits around the bowl, brown in color. The plastic was cracked in the lid and around the seat. The cover of it was half missing.

There was a worn-out wooden cupboard over the toilet. The shower and bath was across from the toilet, with a shower curtain that separated the bath and kept the privacy of the person using it. When I looked inside the shower, I observed that it had chrome colored knobs and spout for the bath, and a chrome shower head with different spray settings.

I replaced the curtain and unlocked the door to the bathroom. I walked out and went to the living room to find my dad. I found him there sitting on the ground, looking puzzled. “Hey dad, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just can’t believe that we’re actually here. I thought this through my head a million times, but it always seemed like a distant dream to me. But the reality is that I actually made it here and all by myself too.”

“Well, technically, you made it here with me, but why would we be speaking in technicalities anyways?” I responded in a joking tone.

“Well, if I were going to be a smart ass about it…” He began to say, glaring at me. At that point, I was ready to pounce. I don’t think my dad noticed it until I was on top of him, wrestling. It wasn’t any harmful wrestling, just play wrestling like my dad and I used to do when I was little. Except this time, I was a big bigger than when I was five, and I am actually a bit for him to handle.

I had my legs clamped around his knees so he couldn’t use his legs, and I began wailing on him, lightly hitting his arms and his stomach. Unfortunately, my dad has always been buff, so I didn’t keep my advantageous position for long. After about ten more seconds of letting me have my way, my dad made quick work of getting his legs untangled and pinning me on the ground.

“This is so not fair!” I whined. “You are like two times larger than me, and have more muscle!”

“It’s not my fault you can’t finish what you started, pipsqueak.” he retorted, sticking out his tongue. “Maybe you should start going to the gym. We could go together three or four times a week if you’d like.”