Belong

"Family"

I sat down on the far right side in the backseat, my hands sweating onto the light brown leather, remembering the last time I went on vacation when I was six. I will always remember that one day we took that vacation. I looked out the window and it was still dark outside.

As soon as mom (my foster mom) started the car and I heard the rumble of the engine, my heart raced. We started to back out of our driveway. I held on to the handle at the side of the door, remembering the deep bump at the end of our driveway. We went down, my heart felt like it hit my chest. When we went back up, I started to settle back down.

"Tasha," started Olyn sitting in his car seat next to Eden. "When will we get there?"

I rolled my eyes and chuckled to myself, still staring through the window.

"Tasha, I know that you're feeling uneasy honey, but be nice to you brother." said Mom.

I didn't answer and kept staring out the window.

Ever since I was six I have hated car rides. I can tell this story like it was yesterday. My real momma and dad went on a road trip with me when I was little. On our way there, there was a blue van with big round metal poles on top of the van. I was sitting in the middle because I loved to watch my parents drive and be able to lean forward and turn up the radio and jam out with them. Well, on our way to Florida, there was a semi coming on the other side of the street and the semi was too close to our side of the road. The semi hit the blue van and some of the loose metal poles in the middle of the bundle tied on top of the car slid back and went straight through our front window shield. It went through my momma's head and my daddy's chest, and they died instantly. One hit my right side and I've had a scar ever since then, even now that I'm turning thirteen in November. After the accident I was sent to a girl's foster home. Not long after did my new foster mom ( Cindy ) and new foster dad ( Colby ) took me in. I have gotten pretty comfortable with my new family and when I mentioned that I was pretty comfortable to my new family, they said how every year they go on vacation somewhere new. They had waited to go on vacation til' I was feeling home enough to tell me. So I agreed and there I was sitting in the car, thinking about my parent's death anniversary. June 15, just two days after we are supposed to get to South Carolina.

Eden, who was only four years old with her small sparkly converse and a wild pink butterfly shirt, was in her carseat with purple headphones on and she was singing. Yeah, she was singing alright, but not the pretty, smooth, and gentle singing, but the loud obnoxious kind of singing. Olyn was in his Ohio State shirt and dark grey sweatpants and wearing his small tennis shoes. He was sitting there and was playing with his small chubby sausage fingers.

We left at about 7:00 AM and it was now about 9:00 AM. We were taking some sort of back highway when we saw a sign saying "Road Closed for Construction." We sighed in disbelief wondering what we were going to do now.

"That's the third one!" cried Eden holding up five fingers.

"I know," said Dad. "we'll have to go through the mountains now. Which means that we'll get to South Carolina at about 9 o'clock or so." And of course, we groaned in frustration.

It was about 7:30 PM when we reached the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful with the sun setting between the mountains, the pinkish - orange sky, the narrow road going downhill so smoothly, and the dark green pine trees below. Right then, I forgot all about my fear of car rides. All I did was keep my head up and and stare out the front window shield. Every once in awhile Dad would let go of the steering wheel and then I would hear him gasp for air afterwards. It always scared me half to death and after every time he would, Mom would say "Honey, I can take over if you're that tired, you know." Then Dad would always say the same thing,