Origins

I hug everyone good-bye two days later and get in the passenger seat of the car, I wipe away my tears and force a smile and my heart breaks when I see my little brother and sister in tears. I raise my hand in a tiny wave and they return it then walk away upstairs as Spencer drives up the driveway and onto the road.

I watch the landscape rush by through my window as we drive home to Sydney. Home to a house filled with friends and not family, memories of when I was a little girl fill my mind as we follow the roads home, the time Dad took us out to ice-cream and we got home and Mum was standing there with a puppy, the time Dad piggybacked me all the way to school, the day Mum pulled us out of school early to take us to the movies, when Dad used to cheer so loudly when I hit a home run in softball, how much fun we used to have when the five of us would go down to the beach straight after school, when we moved to Sydney and built this house, how supportive they were when I had Bronte, how they took us overseas, the time when I got my guitar, my 16th birthday when we had the fireworks, my first driving lesson with Dad. Then I begin to cry as a single question pushes its way into my brain, how am I going to survive without them?

I place my head against the glass of the window and close my eyes with a sigh, Spencer puts a hand on my leg and rubs it softly.

“Frankee, I love you, it’s going to be okay I promise,” He whispers before taking his hand off my leg and putting it back on the steering wheel.