Everything Has Changed Read online

  She plopped herself down on the couch and began to pout.

  Autumn sat on one side of her. Samson sat on the other.

  And that was fine with Meadow. She could easily whack either one of them if they got out of line.

  “Vince and I figured it’s time we start talking about moving and where we should go,” Jenn started.

  Three sets of ears immediately perked up. She had their attention. They’d been back from Kansas for two weeks, and the meeting they’d expected immediately upon arriving home never materialized.

  They all thought their mother had forgotten.

  Actually, it had been weighing on her mind pretty much every minute of every day.

  She’d been helping her parents get settled.

  Darrell, the kids’ grandpa, had decreed Rocki was too fragile to go through the moving process.

  “You guys go ahead. Decide where you want to move. We’re going to stay in Little Rocki for six months while your Nana finishes recuperating. If she’s strong enough for a move after six months, we’ll join you, wherever you’re at. If she’s not, we’ll extend our stay in Little Rock for another six months.”

  And that was that.

  Neither Jenn nor the chitlins had any desire to move without Rocki. And Grandpa was right. The stress of moving across country, or even to Alaska, would do her no good while she was in such a fragile condition.

  She was far more important to any of them than a new house, and they all knew they’d dodged a very large bullet.

  They almost lost her once. None of them wanted to endanger her again.

  Their grandparents’ move would happen eventually.

  They all knew that.

  But now that they knew they’d be cooling their heels in Little Rock for at least six months, the heat was off.

  There was no big hurry now to push the issue.

  There was another reason, though, that Jenn had for putting the move on the back burner.

  One she told Vince about, but not the kids.

  Kids are awesome in general, and Jenn’s brood was especially so.

  But kids are kids, after all, and sometimes put their own feelings above others; even those others they love very much.

  Teenagers are particularly guilty of such things.

  Since the early days of discussing their relocation, while they waited in Rocki’s hospital for her to regain consciousness, the kids all fought hard to go where they wanted to go.

  No consideration was granted the elders of the family.

  They all assumed they could talk their mother into granting their wishes.

  Common sense would dictate the impossibility of such a thing, since the chitlins wanted to move to two different places.

  But logic or common sense never kept a teenager from charging full speed ahead, assuming he or she could work things out to their liking.

  Mom, therefore, wasn’t an issue.

  At issue were the grandparents: Grandpa and Nana.

  “I know they’re old,” Jenn told Vince the first time they had a chance to speak privately. “And I know they’ve said they don’t care where we move to. That if they didn’t like it they’d just go somewhere they liked better.

  “But I don’t want that. Almost losing my mom made me rethink the whole relocation thing. It made me realize I’m not gonna have those two forever. I need to spend time with them while I can, because someday they’ll be gone.

  “For that matter, I need to make sure the kids spend as much time with them as possible.

  “I barely remember my grandparents, because we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them before they passed away. I want my kids to have the relationship with their grandparents I never had.”

  “I don’t see a problem,” Vince said. “Let’s just find out where they want to move to and we’ll all go there.”

  Jenn was touched.

  “You’d do that for us?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Chapter 29

  “The reason we’re here is because we want to talk to you about something very serious,” Jenn started.

  Autumn, never one concerned about interrupting or other small breaches of etiquette, asked, “Did somebody die?”

  “No, honey. Nobody died.

  “No, I promised you that after Nana and Grandpa got settled into their new apartment and Nana started her rehab that we’d talk more about where we were going to move.”

  Sam was no better versed on manners than his sister.

  Actually that wasn’t quite true. Their mom did a great job of teaching them the rules of civilized society.

  They were just very practiced in ignoring them.

  “So when are we moving to Hulaville?”

  That caught Jenn short.

  “Where in heck is Hulaville?”

  “It’s the new Yellowstone refugee settlement in southern California,” he answered with great pride. He’d been doing a lot of internet research of late.

  He went on, “It’s real close to Victorville. And to Apple Valley, too. That’s where the Roy Rogers museum is located. Did you know he stuffed his horse? It’s there at the museum.”

  Jenn whispered to Vince, “Who’s Roy Rogers?”

  Vince just shrugged.

  Jenn forgot her only son’s ears were extremely sensitive, honed from years of eavesdropping on his sisters every time they whispered secrets in close proximity to him.

  “What do you mean, ‘Who’s Roy Rogers?’ Mom, he’s practically the best movie cowboy there ever was. He could not only ride a horse, he could play a guitar and sing too.”

  Jenn looked at Vince again, who shrugged a second time.

  “Sorry, son. We’ve never heard of him.”

  Had Samson done more research he’d have learned that the Roy Rogers museum closed down in Victorville many years before and that one of the downfalls of the internet was that outdated and wrong information stayed around forever.

  It wouldn’t have mattered, though. He still wanted to move to California, with or without his movie hero’s museum.

  Jenn said, “Nobody said for sure we’re moving to Hula Town, or whatever you said.”

  “Hulaville.”

  “Okay. Nobody said we weren’t, either. We thought we’d discuss the pros and cons of southern California and the pros and cons of Alaska, and then see if we can all agree. If we can’t, we vote. Fair enough?”

  It wasn’t fair enough. All three of the chitlins wanted things their way.

  But all three realized that was the best offer they were going to get on this particular day. So they begrudgingly accepted it.

  “Okay.”

  “Okayyyy.”

  “Sam?”

  “But…”

  “Sam?’

  “I just want to say…”

  “Sam?”

  “Okay…”

  “Now, before we start, Vince has something he’d like to say to you.”

  All three of the kids liked Vince. Although his experience in dealing with someone else’s children was almost zero, he related to them in a way few other men did.

  Perhaps it was because he tried harder.

  Or because, since he wasn’t sure how to treat teenagers, he treated them like adults.

  He treated them as equals.

  And it didn’t hurt that he ran circles around them when he played against them in video games.

  Any true gamer doesn’t get upset when a better player beats them. A true gamer recognizes that one doesn’t get better when he wins all the time. One only gets better by being trounced.

  In addition, Vince was willing to share tips; something many gamers are hesitant to do, lest they lose their advantage. Vince helped make the children better by sharing tips and new moves. Then he was patient while allowing his young charges to master the moves and use them against him.

  Most of the men their mom had dated in recent years only tolerated the chitlins at best.

  The feeling was mutual.<
br />
  But they genuinely liked Vince. And if he wanted to say something to them, they’d be patient and respectful and listen to him speak.

  They wouldn’t get ugly and indignant unless he said he didn’t want to go to the same place they did.

  Then all bets were off.

  “I just wanted to say that when I started dating your mom I was really worried about how you guys would treat me. I mean, we had absolutely nothing in common. I thought you might resent my coming in here and think I was trying to take your mom away from you or come between you.

  “I was surprised. You welcomed me into your family and treated me as one of your own. That might be because you consider me just another teenager because I can play your games and most adults can’t.

  “I prefer to think, though, that it’s because you’re all amazing people. Just like your mom is.

  “I know that I’m really an outsider at this point. I appreciate that you’re letting me join your family, but at this point I feel like I have no right to tell you where you should live.

  “I just wanted to let you know that I’m in love with your mom and I’m learning to love each of you.

  “And that I’m willing to go wherever you decide. It doesn’t matter, as long as I get to be with your mom every day and beat you all at Alien Starship every night.”

  And there it was.

  Nana and Grandpa were willing to go wherever Jenn and the chitlins wanted.

  So was Vince.

  Where they would relocate was entirely up to Jenn and her children.

  It was time for the fighting to begin.

  Chapter 30

  Or then again, maybe not.

  Jenn was a wise mother, in that she allowed her kids to win an occasional argument.

  Even when they didn’t win, she was careful to make sure they always had a say-so in every important matter. She wanted them to know that everyone was entitled to an opinion, and in her household they were allowed to voice those opinions.

  The net result was that occasionally one or more of her kids thought the family unit was a democracy.

  It wasn’t, of course.

  It was a dictatorship.

  But it was a friendly dictatorship.

  Like in pretty much every family the parents, or in this case the parent, held all the power.

  Jenn made all the decisions, as was certainly her right.

  But before she made those decisions she carefully considered everyone’s input.

  A friendly dictatorship.

  Sometimes, especially in cases where a key decision had to be made which would affect everyone, she put the matter up to a vote.

  The chitlins had seen the way some of their friends’ families made their key decisions. In many cases the kids were left out of the loop completely. Weren’t even given a chance to make an input.

  For example, just a year before one of Meadow’s friends she’d known since grade school called her up in tears one night.

  It was one of those crying jags where Trish gasped for air between each word.

  Meadow told her to calm down, to catch her breath and relax a bit.

  “I’m here for you. I’ll wait as long as it takes,” Meadow told her. Because that’s the kind of friend Meadow was.

  Trish was finally able to compose herself and explain the problem.

  “Mom told us at the dinner table. Like a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky.

  “She said, ‘Your father’s been offered a job in Seattle. It’s good money, so we decided to take it. We’re checking you out of school on Tuesday and we’ll move on Wednesday.’

  “She said it with no emotion at all. Like she was reading the ingredients to a recipe or something. Meadow, I looked it up. It’s over a thousand miles away. How can they just tear me away from the only home I’ve ever had, like it’s nothing?”

  That night, after Trish kept her on the phone for three hours, Meadow found her mom and hugged her, then walked away.

  She never said what the hug was for, and Jenn didn’t ask.

  They were a family of huggers. They hugged all the time. Sometimes for absolutely no reason at all.

  This time there was a reason.

  Trish’s situation drove home something Meadow already knew: that to her mother, the children were more than pieces of furniture. They were living, breathing human beings. Like people, only smaller.

  And as people only smaller they had wishes and fears and opinions which needed to be heard.

  It wasn’t the way many parents ran their families.

  But it was the way Jenn ran hers.

  “Okay, we’re going to go about this in an orderly way.

  “There are only two ways you can act: are you going to be civilized or be barbarians?”

  They’d heard the same question at the beginning of every family meeting they’d ever convened. It was Jenn’s way of reminding them they were expected to maintain a certain decorum, and that hostility or rudeness would not be tolerated.

  Not much, anyway.

  As the oldest, Meadow had heard the question more than anyone. She felt that entitled her to roll her eyes. But she answered, as did the other two, in perfect harmony.

  “Civilized…”

  It wasn’t the harmony of joyful music, though. It was more the harmony of three tiny tots looking at their feet after being caught taking cookies from a cookie jar.

  But they said it, and they said it together. That was the important thing.

  No matter how well the rest of the meeting did or didn’t go, they were able to work together on at least one small thing.

  “Okay, the first thing I want to do is make a list of pros and cons for each of the locations we’re considering. Autumn, did you bring your notepad and a pen?”

  “They’re right there behind you. On the lamp table.”

  Jenn grabbed them and handed them to the girl.

  This was a wise move on Jenn’s part.

  Autumn loved being the official scribe of the family. She felt especially important when asked to read some of her notes back to the others to refresh someone’s memory. As a scribe she was beyond compare. Her notes were thorough and meticulous and free of unnecessary fluff.

  Knowing her role was absolutely vital to the success of the meeting she’d be a lot happier.

  And a lot less prone to argue unnecessarily.

  “Alright. By show of hands, just so we know voting still works in this house… who wants to go oldest to youngest?”

  Meadow raised her hand.

  “Okay, that’s one vote. How about youngest to oldest?”

  Two little hands went up.

  “Okay, youngest to oldest it is. Sam, you’re first.”

  Sam beamed. He liked going first.

  “Name two pros about moving to Alaska. Two good things.”

  “But I don’t wanna name two good things. I don’t want to move to Alaska.”

  “It doesn’t matter, honey. Find two good things anyway.”

  Sam made an honest effort to think of two things. Or at least made an effort to look like he was thinking hard.

  Finally he said, with great flourish, “Upon great reflection, Mom, I’ve decided there is absolutely nothing good about moving to Alaska.”

  Jenn sighed.

  Apparently this wasn’t going to go as smoothly as she’d expected after all.

  Chapter 31

  But she wasn’t the kind of mother who easily gave up.

  “Okay, Sam. Last chance. But understand that if you can’t think of two good things to say about Alaska, you’re not allowed to say two good things about southern California.”

  That caught him short.

  He had to scramble to come up with something or he lost his right to advocate for his preferred destination.

  “Um… there’s lots of big trees up there that I can tie Autumn to. And there’s lots of bears up there who can eat her before she can get loose.”

  Autumn said, “You’re so immature.
”

  Meadow said, “And evil too. Don’t forget evil.”

  Jenn said, “Try again, buster. Last chance before we move on.”

  “Okay, okay. There’s lots of pretty trees and scenery there… and we can all go fishing together.”

  Even as Jenn was complimenting Sam on his input, he was leaning over and whispering to Autumn, “And I can push you out of the boat.”

  Luckily, Autumn was a bit more mature and didn’t pass that information on to her mom.

  “Very good, Samson. I knew you could do it.

  “Okay, Autumn. Two good things about living in the high desert.”

  She thought for a moment and said, “Oh, I know. There are things there that you don’t see anywhere else in the world, like Joshua trees and desert flowers and stuff.”

  “Very good, sweetheart. That’s one. What’s the other?”

  “Disneyland is only a couple of hours away. We can get season passes and go wherever we want.”

  “Excellent,” Mom said as Autumn was sticking her tongue out at her brother.

  “Now, then. Meadow, it’s your turn. Two good things about living in southern California.”

  “The winters aren’t as brutal there. And if we want to visit Little Rock to see our old friends it’s a lot closer and a lot cheaper.”

  “Excellent. Now we’re all catching on. I’ll add my two. One for each of them. First for Alaska. If we lived there we could experience things we’d never be able to do if we stayed in California.

  “We could visit Katmai National Park, and see all the wild animals roam free.

  “We could go camping close to Mount McKinley.

  “We could see the northern lights.

  “Catch a king salmon that’s bigger than any two of you put together.

  “Celebrate the river breakup with the locals when spring finally arrives each year…”

  “Not fair,” Sam interrupted. “That’s way more than one.”

  “Hush, you. It’s all part of the same thing. Seeing all there is to see and doing all there is to do in Alaska.

  “Now then… one good thing about living in southern California.

  “I’d say that if we lived there we could experience things we’d never be able to do if we moved to Alaska.