Back in Cherrywood

Summer's End

Chapter 1: Packing Blankets

'You little piece of shite!' Liane exclaimed as she limped out of her room. She and Mia had already started packing, but Liane was not neat or organized about it, so for a week now she would cram her leg or foot, against whatever she had left laying in front of her closet. Truth be told, Liane just didn't have the energy to deal with the move after a busy day at work. She had enough on her plate with moving her team's operations overseas, nevermind moving herself and her daughter. Thankfully Mia was always there to keep things moving forward and, more importantly, keep them both on track. Liane was perfectly capable of doing it, but since her daughter seemed more than happy to be the boss at home, she just went with it. After all, her job was stressful enough and she had plenty of bossing around to do at the office.

Liane sighed at the sight of all the half-packed boxes and the general chaos that surrounded her living room. The kitchen was no better. She had sincerely hoped to be done with at least one of the rooms by now, but she had miscalculated how much time they would both have. Between Liane's busy work schedule and Mia's farewells there wasn't a whole lot of time left. Wednesday next week the movers would be here to pick up all of their junk, and the Friday after that they would be boarding their flight to DC. Liane still caught herself not believing it was really happening. She and Mia had been living in Europe for almost two decades now, and Liane hadn't been back in Virginia since,...Liane had to think for a moment to even remember. It must have been before Mia was born. She had seen old friends and colleagues here and there, but she had never actually been back since she had become a mother. When she was younger she would bounce around between her parents' home in Arlington and either Baltimore or New York City, wherever she was working from at the time. She thought back on those days, when she still had the energy to study in one city and work in another, and still find time to visit her parents in yet a different city. These days she was happy when she could muster up the energy to make it to yoga class before work, or on the weekend. People really weren't kidding when they said your stamina takes a hit with age, and she had begun feeling it before her thirties even! Now at forty-four she often felt like a sad deflated balloon, forgotten, days after a blowout party. Or, as she would always say, like a two day old soggy pancake. That's always how she felt on Fridays. She never understood how her colleagues, no matter the age, had the energy to go out partying until dawn on Fridays after work, when she could barely perform basic human tasks. 'Are you a pancake or are we doing something tonight?' Mia would often ask her when she called after school. Liane would either answer she's a burnt soggy pancake, or, on the very rare occasion she wasn't working a seventy hour week, she would say she's still freshly prepared batter. Just thinking about those long hours, headaches, and the moodiness that came with all of it, Liane had to shiver. In truth, she was more than happy to leave that high level job behind for something easier, stabler, less intense. She had taken weeks to make the decision. She was afraid of what it would mean to step down, even if it was only internally seen as a step down, and how it would be to have a brand new manager and division. She would still somewhat oversee operations of her current team, but they would no longer all report directly to her. As one of the few women with a love for numbers and analytics back in the late eighties, she had many doors open to her and it was easy for her to move up quickly wherever she went. Maybe it was time to stop chasing the promotions, the raises and the responsibilities. After all, at sixteen, her daughter would need her more than ever. At a new school, in a new environment, on a different continent. It could very easily be a culture shock for her. Hell, Liane barely remembered what it was like being an American teenager herself.

'What the hell?!' Liane exclaimed again as she felt a hand touch her back out of the blue. Mia had snuck up on her again, she was such a tiny thing Liane could never hear her coming. Mia smiled at her softly and placed a cup of freshly brewed coffee in her hands.