Lucy's Silence

Chapter 1

"Do you have everything? You have your suitcase, your backpack, all of your clothes... Your ID... A blanket for the plane.... Everything?" my mother rambled as she looked at my bags. I gently grabbed her shoulder and nodded. She looked me over before pulling me into another hug. She'd been like that all morning, doting over me as though I was going on some big adventure that I needed to be really well prepared for.

Moving to a new state to start at a new college in the middle of a semester was hardly an adventure in my mind.

She finally let me go and sniffled, trying to hold back tears. "Now, Lucy, you know it's not too late, right? You can still back out of this if you want to, you don't have to go..."

Peter rolled his eyes and put his arm around mom's shoulders. "Mandy, she's going. She's already made it clear that she wants to. Don't try to talk her out of it now, after she's gone through all the effort of packing!"

"You.. You're right, I'm sorry. I just... Lucy, I'm going to miss you so much! But you have your phone, so you can text me at any time, okay? And we can video call, too. And if you ever need to come home, you don't even need to ask, just come, okay?"

I nodded and gave my mom a small, appreciative smile. I knew she was worried that I would struggle wherever I ended up, especially considering I couldn't speak. But I also knew that this would be really good for her. Her agency had already asked her to come back to work the following Monday, and she and Peter already had plans for that weekend to go dancing. She was ready to get back to her life, she just needed me to let her.

This in mind, I picked up my backpack off the floor and grabbed my suitcase.

"Okay, yes, right. Your flight leaves in a few hours, so its probably best to get there a bit early. Are you sure you don't want me to drive you? You're really okay with taking an Uber?" I smiled and nodded. She sighed, giving in. "Okay, okay. But you must text me as soon as you land, okay? And we'll go straight to the post office and ship your three boxes to your apartment, so they should be there in just a couple days. Let me know that they make it to you okay, and if not, we'll figure something out, okay?"

I nodded as we walked towards the door. Stepping onto the porch, I saw my Uber pull up in the driveway. I turned around and gave my mom one more tight hug, kissed her on the cheek, and then walked off and got in the car. My mom and Peter stood on the porch and waved as we drove away.

My Uber driver was less than loquacious, luckily for me, so he just played some indie music to fill the silence in the car as he drove me to the airport. When I got out, I gave him some cash as a tip, grabbed my bags, and went in. Getting through check-in and security was easy enough, and soon I was sitting in a waiting area beside my boarding lane, my bag sitting in one of the empty seats beside me. I only had to wait for about an hour before my plane arrived, and then I was seated in an aisle seat and was on my way. I put in my earbuds and closed my eyes, willing the flight to drag on as long as possible. I was in no rush to get to my new life, where I'd have to navigate a social life, no matter how much I didn't want to.

After grabbing my suitcase from baggage claim, called a taxi, gave him a sticky note with the address of my apartment, and then sat in silence as the taxi driver sang at the top of his lungs the whole way there. It was times like those that I was glad I couldn't speak; I would have snapped on the guy within minutes of his cacophonous music.

When we finally pulled up, I handed the guy his cash after getting my bags out of the trunk. He wished me a good day and then sped off down the road. I looked up at the brick apartment building, letting out a soft sigh. It was tall, just like most of the other buildings in the area. But from the outside, it seemed too plain, too standard... And it made me much less excited to see the inside.