THIRTEEN DAYS LATER, AIRPORT

People began flooding in at exactly twelve PM. Some were clad in military uniforms, but none were my Mother. We all looked anxiously for her, except of course Lauren. Amy shrieked and ran forward to the next person coming out. Dad looked up and began running after her with Sean and I at his tail. We found Amy in a woman’s arms, hugging her tightly and burying her face into her neck. The woman was hugging her back and stroking her hair while kissing her head. It was Mom. I flung myself onto her legs, squeezing them tightly and rubbing my face against her leg. She laughed tearfully and rubbed the top of my head. Dad had stopped a couple feet away and was just staring in awe. Mom shifted Amy onto one hip and held my chin, having me look up at her. She already had tears pouring out as she keeled in front of me and held me to her face. I wrapped my hands around her neck and cried into it, feeling guilty for getting her uniform wet but not guilty enough to stop. She stood back up as Dad came over. He held her face to his and kissed her deeply, sadly. He was crying too as he pulled away from the kiss and hugged her. We stayed that way, just embracing each other for I don’t know how long. But it was too soon that Lauren cleared her throat behind us. Dad broke away first, a hand still on Moms hip as he introduced my step-mother and Sean. Mom was respectful, as expected but I could see in her eyes she was very curious as to what happened while she was gone.

Back at the house, Dad, Mom and Lauren were in Dads room “discussing” our current situation. Lauren was shouting at the top of her thinly-covered lungs, and even though the room was at the back of the house, Amy, Sean and I could hear every word she yelled. I had put my hair down and changed into shorts and a t-shirt when we got home, and we all dressed down.

The situation with Lauren was complicated to say the least. When Mom had left when Amy was just a week or so old, Dad hired a babysitter for us because I obviously couldn’t watch a seven day old when I was only seven myself. The babysitter was a nice twenty-something year old who was very responsible. She invited us to church one day and we went, happy to agree. Dad and I loved it, and that is where we continued to go until Lauren. But at a Wednesday Bible study someone new came in, and there was nothing wrong with that, but her name was Lauren. Dad was struck by her. I don’t know why. Blonde hair, blue eyes, skinny as a stick and paper-thin clothes didn’t seem that attractive to me. It seemed rather average. But after a few weeks of going to church (just to see Lauren) Dad asked her to come over to visit. I knew that wasn’t a good idea but eventually she was spending the night, then the days, then the weeks and months. And before I knew it, I was calling the blonde that was living with us my step mom. My real Mom wrote letters but apparently Dad never mentioned her. Now he was regretting that very badly. I was dumbfounded at how some people could be so blind.

Amy looked up at me and asked why Lauren was yelling. I didn’t know how to explain, so I said I didn’t know. She looked at the ground and said that she liked Mom better than her. I smiled and rubbed her back, telling her I agreed. After a few more minutes if yelling, I told Sean that Amy and I were going to go to the post office. He grunted and we left. I held Amy’s hand as we slowly walked down the sidewalk in our small town. Our neighbors waved and greeted us, and we returned the favor. The post office was just a couple blocks away so we were safe to go.

At two twelve we got there and went in, greeting the postmaster. He smiled and asked us how our day was going and why we weren’t at home with Mom. I didn’t want to explain so just asked for our mail. He gave us two regular-sized envelopes, a business envelope, and a small box. We said goodbye and left, walking even slower back to the house. As we went I looked at the label on the box. It had no name on it; just our address. It was written neatly, but it looked like it was written by someone in a hurry, so some of the characters were cut off before being finished. I shook the box, hearing some shuffling like paper against the cardboard. I was so enthralled in the box I didn’t realize that we were walking up the driveway. Lauren stormed past us, angry and red-faced. She had been crying. Sean was behind her, dragging two suitcases behind him. Amy and I stopped to watch the spectacle. Lauren climbed into the blue Mustang, slamming the door behind her. She banged her forehead against the steering wheel and screamed like a banshee, crying pathetically at the same time. Sean threw the bags in the trunk and waited till his Mom was done screaming to climb in the passenger side. As they backed out of the driveway, he gave us the finger. I covered mine and Amy’s eyes until I heard the motor fade into the distance. I peeked through my fingers and removed my hand from her face. We ran inside to see Mom and Dad grinning and hugging, kissing occasionally. They ran up to us and Mom picked me up and held me above her head, spinning me around as Dad did the same to Amy. The mail, box included, was forgotten for the rest of the night.