Song of the South

On the road

“Kellie, should we get going now or wait a bit?” Eric asked, looking around Kinsey

“Might be good to rest a bit but I think we should get down the road a ways first.” His ex-wife replied

Before Kinsey or Eric could reply, Lane woke up and started crying. The Bass’ both heard the young woman sigh as she cautiously stepped around the bassist to tend to him. Eric looked over at Kellie who was looking back at him.

“She’s in bad shape. Probably has some deep muscle bruising. She needs to be checked out thoroughly to make sure nothing more serious is wrong.” Eric stated, voice no higher than a whisper

“She’s exhausted. The bags under her eyes don’t lie. The baby has colic she once told me. That has to be draining on her.” Kellie replied, nodding her head yes

“The wound on her forearm looks like it’s getting infected.” Eric stated

“I doubt she’s done anything other than wash it out. She definitely wins big sister of the year award.” Kellie replied sadly, “If I ever find her mother I swear, Eric, I will ring her damn neck!”

“So…..How are we going to do this? Drive a couple hours then pull off for a few?” Eric questioned, trying to change the suddenly heavy subject

“Why don’t we drive as long as we can then find somewhere suitable to stop for the rest of the day? Get a hotel so we can actually get some rest then head out tomorrow morning. We can drive the rest of the way then.” Kellie offered

“I like that plan. Why don’t we drive to New Orleans? Good food there and we might be able to take the kids out for a while and let her get some real rest.” Eric stated

“Yeah. That’s a great idea! You go pull the RV as close as you can get it and I’ll start taking their luggage down. I’ll help her move the children and hopefully we won’t wake any of them up!” Kellie said

“Alright. Let me pee though before we get things going.” He chuckled

Kellie just shook her head and left the bathroom. She found Kinsey rocking back and forth with the baby in her arms who was nursing a bottle. The other four were still asleep and tucked into bed. Kellie, whispering, told Kinsey the plan of action. She just nodded her head. She didn’t have much fight in her. Hell, Kellie & Eric could tell her they were about to take all six of them down to the river and shoot them and she’d go along with it. Exhaustion was kicking in and the events of the other night just added to the effects.

Eric finished his business and left the small motel room. It took him a few minutes to get the RV pulled around and situated as close to the stairs as he could get. He wanted to make things as easy as possible. He was tired from the long drive but was happy now that they were here and were about to leave with Kinsey and her siblings. Kellie had already started bringing luggage down so he started loading it into the RV.

Kinsey just wanted to leave. She didn’t care where they went. If she knew her mother, and she knew Gail pretty well, this would not be the last altercation they got into. Kinsey knew she couldn’t fight back against her mother. Gail would use the kids against her. Kinsey would do absolutely anything to protect her siblings no matter the cost. Kellie had taken all their luggage downstairs, including the stroller. They opted to just leave the kids in their pajamas so they could continue sleeping soundly.

Even Kinsey had just stayed in her pajamas. She made sure her laptop was packed up and that they didn’t leave anything behind. Satisfied they had everything, she shut the door behind her. Lane was safely in her arms. Eric had picked up Daisy and took her down to the awaiting RV. Kellie had gotten the other children. Kinsey took a deep breath then headed down the one flight of stairs to where Kellie and Eric were waiting. She turned in her room key then climbed aboard.

Kellie gave her a tour of the big RV. The four children had been settled on the bed in the bedroom in the back of the RV and covered with a nice thick blanket. Kellie had set up the stroller so Kinsey could put Lane in it to sleep. There was a blanket and a pillow on the couch waiting for her. Kellie told her to lay down and go back to sleep. When they stopped for breakfast, she’d wake her up. Eric also reminded his ex-wife that they needed to stop and get some medical supplies to doctor her up.

Kinsey hated just going to sleep but suddenly she just couldn’t keep her eyes open any more. She barely registered Kellie spreading the blanket across her. Kellie sat down in the Captain’s Chair at the front of the RV. She kept looking back to Kinsey like a momma watching her sick child. It was about 5am when they left the motel and it was after 9am when they hit the Louisiana border. They decided to stop for medical supplies when they made it to the first big town. Kellie knew what would be needed so Eric stayed in the RV to keep ‘watch’.

He moved so he could watch the sleeping young woman. Getting some real rest, without having to wake up with a crying baby, would do her worlds of good. Kellie returned a short while later. She needed a bit of help with doctoring Kinsey. Eric noted that the girl was so exhausted that she didn’t even wake up. Not even when Kellie used some Hydrogen Peroxide to clean her wounds. It really concerned them both.

They took special interest in the cut on her left arm. It was getting infected and needed the extra attention. Daisy was the first of the small children to wake up. Eric quickly greeted the young girl and asked how she had slept. Daisy smiled back and said she had slept fine. She looked over at her sister then frowned slightly.

“Is she going to be ok?” Daisy quietly asked

“She’s just super tired. I think she’ll be alright.” Kellie replied, sweetly, “Are you hungry?”

Daisy suddenly got shy as she said yes.

“Well Eric, let’s get out of here and go find a good place for breakfast.” Kellie stated

Eric sat back down in the driver’s seat and got them back out on the road. He wanted somewhere that he knew the food would be good and that was family friendly. After driving for a while, he decided to pull into an IHOP. Surely the children would be able to find something they liked here! Daisy had went to get dressed as Kellie tried to wake up Kinsey. She hated doing so, the girl really, really needed the rest, but she knew Kinsey also needed some solid sustenance in her system. Kinsey slowly roused from her deep slumber.

Kellie had explained what they had done to her as she inspected her bandaged arm. Kinsey just nodded in understanding as Lane woke up crying. Kellie watched as Kinsey got up and dutifully took care of the small, helpless child. He needed to be changed and appeared to be hungry. As she was wiping his bottom, Eric announced that they had arrived for breakfast. Daisy appeared from getting dressed so Kinsey asked her to wake up the other three children for her. Daisy nodded at her big sister and disappeared back into the bedroom.