On The Road Again

Prologue

The sound of crying woke Gaylord. He'd just finalized his divorce with Shayley, but she'd moved out months ago. She left Gaylord with their almost-year-old daughter, Álainn, to care for. Which, of course, he didn't mind. He loved his little girl and would do anything for her. So to him, he was fine with her giving him custody of the young girl.

He sat up in his bed with a sigh, then slowly got up, "I'm coming, Álainn..." he whispered, leaving what once was his and Shayley's room to go into his daughter's.

As he entered the room, he saw Álainn stand up at the bars of her crib. She made a small "ba" noise at his entrance, her crying slowing to a stop, happy to see him.

"We're putting the house up for sale today, my love," he said to her, lifting her out of the crib, "We'll be moving in with your grandparents for a few months. Then, from there, I don't know where we'll go. I guess wherever life takes us."

Gaylord held his daughter close to him, looking around Álainn's nursery. The room had a bunch of boxes, all different sizes. All the boxes were ready to be packed into the moving van later today, minus a few things that Álainn had needed for the night. He walked out of the room with her, taking her into the kitchen. He'd set out her breakfast (and his) the night before, as he wanted to be prepared to get out of this house as soon as possible. Too many memories resided here.

He'd place her into her high chair, watching for her to get settled. He watched as she smacked the tray a few times, chuckling at her as he got everything together for her. As soon as he was done preparing everything, he sat down in front of Álainn, helping her eat. Álainn was almost capable of eating on her own, but hadn't gotten quite there yet. He'd end up missing these little moments with her, so he had to take advantage of them now before it was too late. You blink and you miss it, they always say. He now totally understood what they meant by that.

Once Álainn was done, Gaylord let her out of the high chair. She couldn't quite move around well on her own yet, so he wasn't all that worried about her getting into anything. Not that there was much left for her to get into, with everything being boxed up and all. He got his food all together now, settling in to eat too. The moving van that was helping him could be here any minute, and he had to be prepared.

Sure, he still had a lot of stuff in his childhood home, so a lot of it would temporarily end up in storage, but like he'd told Álainn, they'd only be there a little while. When the opportunity came up, they'd be leaving again. That is, if the opportunity came up. That's a better word. If, not when.

He'd just finished eating and taking care of his dishes when the moving truck pulled into the driveway. Guess it was time to get everything together and get ready to go.

Time to get on the road again.