Moving in with the Metzingers

Chapter 4

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Pemalope."

"Thank you, Ms. Edison. I appreciate it."

"Her name is Miss Rachel, silly!" Ara sing-songed, poking me on the arm.

Rachel Edison, one of Ara's teachers at Manchester School for the Dislexic, and I laughed at Ara's correction.

"Of course," I replied to my sister as she ran off to talk with someof her friends, leaving me with her backpack. As I went to hang it on the hook labeled "Philiara," a few parents came over to where I was standing.

"Pemalope!" One of the mothers cried, hugging me.

"Hi, Mrs. Harrison. It's nice to see you."

"Oh, it's great to see you too, dear. I was so sorry to hear about your parents," she gushed, frowning. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay. I'm going back to school today."

Mrs.Harrison smiled sympathetically, and Mrs. Wilson spoke up.

"How is Ara coping? She seems okay," Mrs. Wilson commented.

"She's doing better. Still sad, but better."

"And Lanie?" Mrs. Richardson added.

"Quiet. We're all getting through it."

They all look at me pitifully, something I had come to hate, but learned to ignore.

"Gosh, it's such a drive to come all the way to Manchester and back without any help," Mrs. Harrison observed worriedly.

"Oh!" Mrs. Wilson exclaimed."I have to go by Manchester-by-the-sea this afternoon to drop Ella at her friend's house. I could take Ara home, if you'd like," she offered.

"That would be a huge help, thank you so much Mrs. Wilson," I replied, sighing a sigh of relief.

"Of course, hon. I'll see you this afternoon." She leaves, followed by the otehr mothers, who uttered their goodbyes.

I called to Ara before leaving. "You're going home with Ella today, okay Ara?"

She nodded excitedly, and ran over to tell Ella the news. I waved goodbye to Mrs. Edison and returned to my car.

"Sure took you long enough," Lanie grumbled, leaning against her door with her eyes closed.

I rolled my eyes. "I got Ara a ride home, so I'll just pick you up straight from school, okay?"

Lanie nodded and didn't say anything more, trying to rest before we got to her school.

As I sat in the radio-less silence of my car, I thought about the decision hoveing over our heads. Seattle with the near-stranger Metzingers, or Colorado with the unpleasant Aunt Jenny? I knew Aunt Jenny wouldn't be hurt if we chose the Metzingers over her; she knew we didn't have the best relationship, and I doubt she really wanted three kids to have to deal with and feed and shop for and talk to and, well, parent. Aunt Jenny, not having a very warm-and-fuzzy personality, was not someone I could picture as being a parent, nevermind ours.

Laura Metzinger, on the other hand... she was already a mother of three, so she knows how to be a parent. I wouldn't mind being close with the Metzingers or even living with them, but it all seemed to unfamiliar. So... permenant. Like, by moving in with the Metzingers, I would be confirming my parents' death. Saying goodbye to the house I have lived in as long as I can remember, the friends I've had since kindergarten, the town I have grown so accustomed to and never imagined I would have to leave behind.

Today, waking my sisters up, making them breakfast, sitting in the kitchen alone, and driving Ara to school... it was as if nothing had happened. Sure, those responsibilities are not things I usually have to do, with mom and dad there to do them for me. But everything seemed the same, as if our parents had just gone on a little trip and they would be back in a few days. Moving accross the country would change everything. It would make everything one hundred times more real. We would be forced to accept our parents being gone, and we would have to get used to a new life, a new daily ritual without them in it.