On A Stormy Night

Ch. 1 Moving Day

I was taking the pictures off my walls and carefully packing them into a box between some of my blankets. When my eyes landed on a family portrait of my adopted parents I was suddenly lost in my own thoughts. I remembered this day very well even though it had been taken several years ago. My real mom was supposed to be there but didn’t show up. I was so angry because after my adopted mom was generous enough to invite her to do it with us she decided to be a no show. When we got home I decided to call her and find out the reason why but she didn’t answer. She called me back the next day apologizing and giving all these excuses as to why she’d missed it but I knew the real reason. I could hear it in her high pitched voice. She was high, again. In those days she’d always been high.

I placed the picture into the box and moved onto a more recent one. This one was from my recent graduation just a few months ago. I was holding my nurses certificate. My adopted parents weren’t in the picture any more but my mom was and you could tell by the shine in her eyes and the overall happy look about her that she was finally clean. It had taken her a long time to convince me she was clean again but I was finally starting to believe her. I placed the picture into the box and taped it shut. 

"Elena! Can you come here please?" Mom yelled from downstairs. 

"Yeah, just a sec!" I answered, putting the books I had in my hand carefully into the box. Yes, that’s right, I said book. I'm a huge bookworm and proud of it.

I stopped on my way to the stairs and peeked in on Liam. He was sitting in the middle of the floor playing with a box of toys I’d now have to repack. I smiled, he was only two so I couldn’t get mad about it. I should’ve taped up the box before I left it there. Despite how he came into the world I loved my little guy dearly. He was my everything. I stepped over the squeaky board in the hallway and continued on towards the stairs quietly trying not to disturb him.

I swung the baby gate open and made sure to close it behind me before starting down the stairs. “Mom? What room are you in?” I asked, unsure where I’d seen her last. 

“In here,” she answered from the living room. 

I came to a halt just inside the doorway and glanced around the room. It looked so different all packed up. I realised in that moment that it was a good thing my mom had offered to help me pack up my house because it would’ve taken me weeks to get through it with all the memories from my childhood constantly popping up. I shook my head to rid myself of the thought and walked over to my mom who was busy trying to pack curtains into a box that was much too small. I giggled at her efforts.
        
"Do you need some help?" I asked, smiling.
        
She looked up from the heap of maroon madness and pointed at a stack of boxes. “Sorry to interrupt you but can you get those and carry them out to the moving truck? I’d do it myself but my back wouldn’t be very happy with me afterwards," she said, placing the back of her hand against her lower back. 
        
“Sure. No problem.” I answered walking over and picking them up.
        
“Oh, wait,” she said walking over to  scribble something on each of them with a red sharpie. “Okay, now they’re ready.”
        
I readjusted them and continued toward the door. I put them into the almost full moving truck and turned around to go back inside, but I stopped to look up at the almost empty house. I sighed sadly. I have lived here for over 20 years. I was really going to miss it, but I needed a change of scenery. Besides, now that my mom was clean I really wanted to take the chance to finally get to know her, the real her. I hadn’t lived with her since before I could remember so I knew this probably wasn’t going to be easy. We’d probably have our ups and downs but if I didn’t do this I might never have this opportunity again, and I might regret it for the rest of my life. I pushed those thoughts aside and went back upstairs to my room to finish packing.