Finding Home

I must have dozed off after promising Lindsay I would take her to an Oilers game, because the next thing I remember is her nudging me awake. Groggy and still half-asleep, I rolled my head to the right, getting my first look at our new house. But because my head had been resting on my left collarbone, rolling it to now rest on the car door right away was a big mistake. Tendons tight, my neck muscles locked in place. Fuck. Now I couldn't look away as we pulled up in front of a rather lovely, two-and-a-half-storey brick house. Putting the car in park and shutting off the engine, my parents simultaneously turned around in their respective seats and announced: "We're home!"

I moaned out of a mix of frustration and pain. Obviously we were home.

My mom nudged my dad, and in a rather low voice, whispered, "Come on Bill, let's get Tess’ stuff.”

I guess my dad expected my attitude to have done an 180o after landing because my mom shot him a look before he could open his mouth. He was just about to start arguing that I needed to get out of the car and come inside with them. And I better leave my attitude in the car, too. Defeated, my dad helped my mom bring my luggage inside. They made sure to leave to front door open a crack. I wasn’t headed anywhere; it was only a matter of time before I met them inside to join our family’s new life.

Until I could escape my paralyzed state I was currently victim to, I took in the neighbourhood. It was quaint, charming, and evidently well-kept. From what I could see (in my current state), we were living in a solely residential section of Strathcona. I wonder where the shops are. My mind continued to wander until I realized I could move my neck. Stretching and cracking my neck, I slowly slithered out of the SUV. My feet dropped to the ground and the car beeped when I shut the door behind me, indicating that the car was locked. Well, nowhere but up, I laughed to myself rather sarcastically. Dragging my feet forward over the sidewalk, I locked the gate behind me and made my way along the brick pathway to the house looming before me.

I must admit, my parents did a good job choosing a house. I knew how much trouble they had had finding real estate in Edmonton, since they had at one point (before seeking an agent) requested my assistance finding homes. Mortified, they had assumed their internet skills were below par when they tried using Google, when in reality there were (almost) no Edmonton real estate websites. Finally, my dad contacted Corporate and asked them who he and my mother should enlist to help them find a house. It shouldn't have been so unbelievably difficult to find an agent, or simply a website, but for Edmonton real-estate, it was. That was my first wakeup call after the disastrous dinner to the fact we were moving at the end of the school year. And let’s just say, it didn't make a good first impression on me; all it did was confirm my prejudice that Canada was backwards in comparison to Boston and the rest of The States.

Taking in the house before me, a feeling of comfort passed throughout my body, opening my mind up to this new life. I admired the impressive new veranda surrounding the entry and front of the house as I walked up the steps and opened the front door, revealing a grand foyer. A large white staircase at the opposite side of the room invited me in. As if I were in a trance, I closed the heavy oak door behind me and floated inside. Deaf to my mother’s offer, I instead gave myself a tour of the house. Hypnotized, I admired the double wood pocket doors in the living room and built-in shelving in the parlor; only gravity kept my feet planted on the refinished hardwood floors, or else I would have floated up until I hit my head on the ten foot high ceilings. Still entranced, I somehow found myself in the kitchen, with its new cabinets, flooring, appliances, grand farmers sink, and marble countertops. From there I ascended the original staircase I met in the foyer and explored the second floor. In my high I was surprised but excited to discover that my parents’ bedroom had its own kitchen and living room! The latter were still mostly bare, but their bedroom had been unpacked and set up in a similar way as it had been in Boston. Lindsay’s room also resembled her room in Boston; her room the most out of all the rooms in the new house. Hockey posters taped to the walls, trophies and medals on display, her ancient green-ruffled blanket perfectly made on her bed. Seeing all the rooms on the first two floors, the only room left to see was my bedroom, which happened to be on the third floor.

I climbed to the third floor. Upon opening my bedroom door, I was released from the spell I had been under since passing through the gate. Unbeknownst to me, my bedroom on the third floor was actually one big loft with a newly renovated bathroom. The day’s remaining sunlight streamed through the three windows, one on each wall, the one to my right huge and delicious. The slanted ceiling threw shadows along the walls and across my bed like clay on a pottery wheel. Aware of each step I took, I sat down on my bed which had already been made up with my favorite blanket and pillowcases. They had been packed up and shipped here a week before, the day I moved in with Sophie. My last week in Boston had been spent at her house.

xxx

My parents had been able to sell our house before moving with Lindsay to Edmonton. Along with the realtor, my parents and I agreed that I could live in our house until July first, on which date all of my remaining stuff had to be packed up, besides the several pieces of luggage that accompanied me on the plane, and shipped to the new house. July first, Sophie picked me up that afternoon and the realtor had the house cleaned over the next two days. The new family moved in the on the Fourth of July. How fucking ironic. I stayed with Sophie and her family during my final week in Boston, absorbing as much of the city as I could.

xxx

Exhausted, I lay down on my bed, blanket rising in waves around my drained body. All I wanted was to go to sleep and wake up from this nightmare, but the nagging in the back of my mind kept me awake. I finally rolled over to grab my phone from my backpack and dialed Sophie. I thought she wasn’t going to pick up but on the final ring before going to voicemail, she answered.

“Tessie!” she squealed from twenty-six hundred miles away. But with my eyes closed, it seemed as if she was in bed next to me.

“Soph.” I may have seen her just a few hours before, but hearing her voice almost made me break down.

“How was the flight? Did you have to wait long for Bill and Kelly?” she asked, referring to my parents by their first names. Her questions came in waves; as soon as I rode one, she thought of more to ask me. There weren’t many questions she could ask me yet about Canada, and there wasn’t much I could tell her. I did describe the new house for her: it was a two and a half storey, 106 year old house in Strathcona, Edmonton. It had four bedrooms but only three were in use. My parents had no use for the fourth bedroom since the house already came with an expansive study and a finished basement, so they had just decided to leave the room completely empty. I described the parlor and my parents’ apartment and the library and lastly my bedroom-loft. Depleted after describing the extensive interior, Sophie finally had a chance to speak.

“Oh Tess, that sounds incredible! You’ll send me tons of pictures, right? Snapchat me some videos?”

I laughed at her request. “Of course! You wouldn’t believe this place…..” I trailed off.

Her next words brought me back down to earth. “You mom’s still okay with our deal, right? Like, the deal’s still on?”

I nodded although she couldn’t see me. “Of course. I literally just talked to her about it,” I lied. “And she’s still down with the idea. I just have to suffer for six months and then I’m out of here!”

We chatted a bit longer until we heard her mom call her down for dinner. “Well, that’s me! Got to go!”

We said our final goodbyes before she added: “Don’t get into any trouble,” she teased.

As if planned, my mom called me down just as I hung up with Sophie. Exhausted, I loudly moaned, hoping she both heard me downstairs and could decipher its code: I’m tired, leave me alone; I don’t even want to be here, so you owe this to me. But she was persistent and even came close enough to opening my shut bedroom door.

“Stop! Do not open the door!” I yelled when I heard her just outside my door.

“Tess, can you come downstairs for a minute? We have something to show you.”

Although she asked in her kind, motherly voice, I replied with a cold, “No. Go away.”

“Tess, please come downstairs; it’ll only take a minute.”

Stubborn, I knew she wouldn't go away unless I agreed to follow her down. “Hold up” I called out, rolling a few times in bed until I gained enough momentum to get myself off. Slipping on my flip-flops I had left beside my bed, I open the door to a devilish-looking mother.

Shooting her an annoyed look, like I had anything better to do to occupy myself alone in my loft, she grinned. “It’ll only take a minute,” she repeated. She turned and descended the steps, me following her. But she didn't stop on the second floor; we made our way down the next flight of stairs and across the foyer and through the front door and down the front steps.

Irritated with her, I didn’t notice my dad and Lindsay waiting for us in the driveway as we made our way towards them. Finally reaching them, my mom turned to me and said, “So, what do you think?” motioning with outstretched arms like a game show host. It was then that I finally noticed what was so blatantly obvious: there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway! I thought I knew what it meant but I wasn’t completely sure. Because for years I had begged for a car but the answer had always been the same: No!

“So, what do you think?” she asked, very excited. She may have been more excited to see my reaction than I was to getting a car. Or at least that’s how it probably appeared to our neighbours.

“But….I thought…you said…..” I was at a loss for words. I couldn’t believe it; too much had happened in such a short period of time. I stammered trying to find the words to form the most basic sentence. “I thought you and dad,” acknowledging his presence for the first time, “said, ‘No car.’ Like ever.”

My mom grinned like the Cheshire Cat. “I know we made it pretty clear you weren’t getting your own car until college with your own money, but we figured you’d need one here, getting to school and all. Plus the public transportation doesn’t seem that great…”

“It’s not a new car Tess,” my dad chimed in.

I didn’t care though! I was head over heels in love with this car, my car! It didn’t matter that it wasn’t some new, two thousand fourteen Toyota. But honestly, it could have passed as fresh-off-the-lot. The Rav4 parked in front of me was shiny and scratch-less and shone like a black diamond in the late afternoon sun. I was so taken aback by the surprise before me that it took some time for it all to sink in. And that’s when it hit me. “Is this some sick bribe to keep me from running back to Boston?” I snarled at them, turning from the car back to face them.

They didn’t look shocked, though; I guess they had expected this as a possible reaction. “No Tess, this is not ‘some sick bribe.’ In all honesty we’d appreciate it if you would drive Lindsay to practice and such. It would really help us out while your dad and I are getting settled at work. But then you’d need a car and neither one of us felt we could do without ours.” It was true: my dad worked in downtown downtown Edmonton and my mom worked too, I just wasn’t exactly sure where. “Plus, moving here isn’t exactly your ideal eighteenth birthday gift from us, so maybe a car would be…” She meant it as a question but it was more of a statement. The timing was horribly perfect: I had been shipped to Canada just in time to miss celebrating my eighteenth birthday with all my friends. The car didn’t make up for that, but it was a damn good start.

I was still determined to move in with Sophie during Winter Break. My relationship with my dad was still questionable. I was still hesitant about accepting Edmonton as my new home.

But maybe things weren't going to totally suck.