(Scarlett, Emmett and Alvin watching as we prepare)
Henry and I got up before the sun, which in this neck of the woods is about 4:00 AM. Henry was packed and ready to go, the only thing missing was his book. We couldn’t find it anywhere I called Lisa.
“Hello?” Quinn answered.
“Hey Quinnderella. You guys ready?”
“Yeah, almost.”
“Henry can’t find his book and he's getting a little frantic. Did he by any chance leave it at your house?”
“The one with the honey jar on the cover? Yeah, I think he did. I’ll bring it with me to the airport. I’d be upset if I didn’t have my book. I hear he hates his new haircut”
"He's over it."
"Well, I liked it long" she said as she hung up.
(Irish felt breakfast wasn't being served fast enough and wondered if perhaps this morning it was self-serve)
His new crew cut socks freshly dyed a bright orange, were paired and packed in his suitcase. I loaded his stuff up in the car while he grabbed a Tiger Milk™ bar and a bowl of Cheerios™. Henry is leaving for three weeks. It wasn’t an easy decision to send him away, but it seemed like the right one. He’d written to a fancy gymnastics camp and been awarded a scholarship. The camp is in California so it was inevitable he’d have to fly there. Coincidently, Lisa and the girls were going to Los Angeles for a week, Lisa was scheduled to do some freelance vet work at one of her old animal hospitals and the girls were going along to go to the beach and see all their friends. It seemed a perfect opportunity for Henry to go. He didn’t have to travel alone and he could spend the two weeks prior to camp attending his former gym, Victory Gymnastics Academy. He’d see Tom on the weekends and he could stay with various friends in Woodland Hills during the week and carpool to his four-hour workouts. This would leave me free to work at the Everybody Store to earn some much needed money. And what's more I wouldn’t have to spend money on gas driving him to gymnastics, worry about asking for special hours to accommodate his schedule or stress about childcare during my shifts. It seemed perfect. So why did I feel so melancholy?
Coffee in hand, we got in the car. “Mama, you’re really brave. One of the bravest people ever” Henry stated as he turned his seat heat on high.
“Thanks, but why do you say that? Why am I so brave?”
“Well, my going away is going to be hard on you. You’ll be all alone, you have a lot to do around here by yourself and even though you’ll miss me and you’ll be sad, you’re sending me away so I can do gymnastics again and have a good time with Daddy and my friends. Knowing something’s hard and doing it anyway is brave.” Henry said looking me straight in the eye.
My eyes welled up. It was hard, but I didn’t want him to feel guilty. “Oh Honey, I’ll miss you, A LOT, but I’ll be fine. This will work out for me too. I can work and earn money you’ll have fun and when you get come back it’ll be like a party around here. Awesomez and her kids are arriving just before you and you’ll come back with Daddy and June. Don’t worry about you’re old mama. I’m going to have some time with out any smelly feet stinking up the place.” I laughed and he laughed. He squeezed my hand and I thought the tears were going to start, but I took a swig of my coffee and off we went.
Funny, how five in the morning looks like mid-day here now with the summer solstice quickly approaching. We hadn’t gotten two miles when we were surprised to see a sign stating the one-lane bridge; the bridge over the middle fork of the Nooksack River was closing.
(The One-Lane Bridge- aka The Middle Fork Bridge)
(The same sign post Henry and I spent most of the night under during the big snow)
“Oh my gosh, what is this going to mean?” Henry panicked.
“I don’t know. It’s going to be shut for almost a year. Look there are already mobile offices. I wonder if they’re going to wreck it and make it two lanes.”
“That would be crazy. How many times do we meet another car at the bridge? Maybe five times in two years?” Henry assessed sensibly. “You know this means we have to get up even earlier to go to school!”
“Going the other way is only about three miles longer” I reassured him. “Don’t get hysterical. Look on the bright side, we’ll have to pass the Everybody's Store every day and may I remind you, they have Sobe™.”
“Nirvana” Henry lusted.
Henry jotted down the phone number to call for further information. I’d have to find out if we would still have mail delivery. Would they continue to plow a seven-mile dead end street? And were they going to forever wreck the charm of our one-lane bridge with progress?
We met the Donaldson clan at sleepy Bellingham International Airport. Phoebe slapped Henry in the chest with his book and gave him his yo-yo out of her carry-on. Chris and I stood together watching and waving good-bye through the tinted glass as they walked across the tarmac. Their plane got off without a hitch.
On my own now, I felt I deserved a treat and stopped for a non-fat latte before deciding to take the new way home and try it on for size. A favorite route of my father’s when he lived here I had only taken this section of the 9 a handful of times. Actually, I thought brightly, as I drove through the cute little town of Van Zandt, passed the charming dairy and Christmas tree farms,
(Everybody's Store on the 9)
this road closure was going to force me out of my routine. I could see things were changing, I would stop for a video or a tomato and end up meeting my neighbors in Acme and Van Zandt. I was finally going to become more a part of the community. I was on a new path.
