Cricket (A Short Memoir)

June 16th, 2014.

I woke up to the sound of my mom telling me it was time to get up. I groaned and rolled out of bed at my grandma's house. We packed up all of our stuff and got in the car and started to drive back home. It was around 7.

My mom and I passed the fields where the deer were roaming 12 hours earlier. I noticed that the fields were empty with only the morning sunlight shining upon the ground. It looked almost peaceful, like I could lay there all day. We finally pulled into our driveway, inching up the blacktop ever so carefully. I was hesitant to open my car door as I had a gut feeling that this day would not be good. Finally, I gained the courage and pulled the handle and swung my feet out onto the driveway. I closed my door and opened the back door and gathered up my things. I looked at my mom as she looked at me. We were ready. I shut the door and walked into the already open garage. We turned the handle of the door and it opened, greeting us was Buffy, our dog, and she lead us through the back office. We took off our shoes and walked through the hallway and into the kitchen. I placed my things on the table and then heard a door opening. Out of the hallway came my dad with a guilty look on his face. My heart quickened, then he said hello to me and hugged me tight, giving me a kiss on my forehead.

"I'm so glad you're home," he said.

"Me too," I agreed. He smiled at me, then looked past my shoulder where my mom stood. He nodded his head towards our back patio at her and they walked out the back door and sat in the lawn chairs on the deck to talk through why we left the night before. At that moment I heard footsteps in the hallway. I looked to see a very sleepy Ben emerge already dressed for the day. He said hello to me and took his spot on the couch opening up his IPad and going right to Minecraft. I turned on the TV and joined him, opening my IPad also. A little while later I noticed that Ben had left his seat. While I was standing to my feet I heard barking coming from my parents room. I walked down the hallway and into their room and saw my brother, my dog and my dad all laying on the bed. My dad sometimes liked to pretend to growl at my dog, which then prompts her to bark back in defense. I hopped onto the bed and sat down by the tail of my dog, which was wagging erratically. We all just sat like this for what seemed like 30 minutes. Just us, happy. Like yesterday never even happened. Then, it was over. My dad got up from the bed and started to get ready to go to work. He picked out a nice orange checkered button-up shirt with nice khakis and laid it out on the bed. My brother and I left the room then so he could change and returned to our spots on the couch with our IPads. "Why are you guys always on your IPads? Why not be social with your family?" My dad asked my brother and I. We shrugged our shoulders and went back to whatever we were doing that seemed to be of such more importance. After a while my dad emerged from the hallway all ready to go to work for the day. He walked up to my spot on the couch; I could see he was about to say goodbye. He hugged me and said, "Goodbye cricket, I love you so much. You could not even believe how much I love you." He seemed to almost be crying when he said these words, which scared me a little. He held me for a few more seconds then he let go and walked over to Ben and did the same thing to him. Then he was gone. He pulled his car out of the driveway and left. I went back to watching TV and playing a game on my IPad. About 15 minutes after my dad left the phone started to ring. I got up from my seat and walked over to the red home phone, lifted it up and pressed the button labeled, TALK. "Hello?" I said into the receiver.

"Hi Ali! Can you please give the phone to Mom?" My dad said seriously yet calm.

"Sure! Bye dad!" I said with enthusiasm.

"Bye cricket." He said. I walked into my mom's room and handed the phone to her telling her that it was Dad. I walked out of the room and back to my spot on the couch and sat down. About five minutes later my mom emerged from the hallway and walked across the entrance to the living room into the kitchen. She was saying the date of her birthday into the phone. She stopped midway and asked me to call my dad to see where he was. At this point I was suspicious. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed his number but it went right to voice mail. I decided to go see what was going on. I got to my feet and walked to where my mom was located.