Trust Changes

Coming Home

Ricky

I walk through the front door of the apartment and throw my bags on the couch. "I'm Home!" I yell through the apartment to see if my dad is home. I sit down on the couch next to my bags and turn on the TV. Upon further inspection of the room around me, I noticed moving boxes around that were not there when I had left. Maybe My dad just unpacked the last few boxes from when we moved in; yeah, that has to be it. We just moved here about six months ago; there is no way we are moving again already. I wait for a commercial to come on before moving my bags from camp into my room. I notice a piece of paper sitting on my bed. "Ricky, I left some boxes for you against your dresser." I turn around and see them sitting there, and I look back to the note. "Jen or I will be there to help you finish packing and load the truck around 5:30. Go ahead and get started; I will explain everything when I get home."
"Great," I mumble to myself as I start setting up boxes to move... again. I have about five hours to get things packed, so I should have most of it done by the time they get home. My dad sent me a text about 30 minutes after I had started that told me anything that was still in boxes from the last move had already been moved with the first part of his stuff. After a long time packing, I hear the front door open. "Ricky, are you home?" I hear Miss Jen yell while closing the door behind her. "Yeah! I'm in my room!" I hear her footsteps come to my room. "Have you talked to your Dad yet?" She asks, standing at my doorway. "No, he was gone when I got home. All I was told was to pack. I did notice that the kitchen was shockingly empty when I went to make lunch, though." I see her nod her head. "Did you find food?"
"No, I figured I would just wait until dinner. I guess I did find a thing of fruit snacks and a bag of chips, if that counts?"
"No, Richard, that does not count as food."
"Oh, full name, that's new. I said with a laugh."
"Why don't you take a break? We will go get you some lunch and come back, okay?" I nod my head. I grab my phone and look at the time. "I thought you weren't coming till 5:30; it's only 2:30?"
"Yeah, I managed to get off a little earlier than I thought. Come on, let's go." I slip on my shoes and walk towards the door. "I will drive." She says as she ushers me out the door. "Wait, I forgot my wallet."
"It's fine; I'll pay, don't worry about it."
"No, I'm pretty sure My dad will kill me if he finds out I had you pay for lunch."
"It's okay; I will explain it to him. You will not get in trouble for this." I nod my head. "Okay, if you say so." We walk downstairs and outside. We make our way down to Miss Jen's car. We get inside, and the ride is pretty quiet. I can hear something on the radio, but not enough to tell what it is. I sit there biting my lip, with a question burning in the back of my mind. "Miss Jen, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course, Ricky, you can ask me anything."
"Do you know why My dad and I are moving? Or where are we moving to? It's just really out of the blue and kinda freaking me out."
"Well, yes, I do know where we are moving to, so how about we do this? We can grab some lunch, and then I will drive you by the new house before coming back. Sound good?" I nod my head. "New house, as in no longer living in an apartment. Not that I don't like the apartment, but I miss not having to hear the neighbors' dog bark all night."
"Yes, new house." I feel a smile go across my face. I sit there in anticipation when I realize, 'How did Dad afford a new house?' I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to ask any questions that I wasn't sure if I wanted the answer to. We drive through a drive-through and then over to a neighborhood over by Big Reds house. We pull into a driveway of a two-story house with a basketball hoop, "So, what do you think?"
"This is it; this is the new house."
"All four bedrooms of it."
"We're only like two blocks from Big reds house!"
"I know, your Dad said you would be pretty happy about that." She says with a smile. "What?" I give her a confused look. "Nothing." She says bringing herself back to reality. "Let's get back to your apartment so we can finish getting you packed up." I nod my head as we start driving back. We get a little bit down the road when Miss Jens phone goes off. "Hold on, I need to take this." She answers her phone. "Hey Honey, I'm in the car with Ricky, your on speaker."
"Hey, how was camp?"
"It was fun, I can't wait to tell you all about it!" I say "I can't wait to hear all about it."
"What are you two out doing?"
"We already packed up the kitchen so we went out to go get a late lunch."
"Perfect!"
"We also drive by the new house."
"Do you like it?"
"We didn't go inside, but the outside was cool, and we're so close to Big Reds house!"
"I thought you would like that."
"Hey, Jen can you take me off speaker so we can talk for a minute."
"Yeah, just give me a minute." We pull into the apartment and Miss Jen shuts off the car. "Ricky why don't you head on inside, I'll talk to your dad out here for a minute." I nod my head and go back to the apartment. I take the keys she handed me and unlock the door. I go to my room and start working on my room. Out of all the thoughts swirling in my head, one stands out. I'm pretty sure that ring was new.