Leah woke with a scream on her lips. With the familiar nightmare dancing across her mind, Leah reached out to the thin thread still connecting her to her twin, wishing to just once more hear him calling her, saying anything. As all the times before, there was no response. Looking at the clock and seeing it was almost 7:00 am, and knowing she wouldn’t fall back asleep after reliving the day she lost her twin, Leah decided to get breakfast for her family. Since they were moving later that day, all the kitchenware was packed and there was no food in the pantry or refrigerator, so Leah chose to go out and get donuts and coffee.
By the time she returned home, her mom was awake and organizing the last of the boxes that needed to be loaded into the moving truck, but her younger brother was still asleep. Knowing the perfect way to annoy her brother into waking up, Leah took some of the donuts to her brother’s room, barging in and jumping on his bed. When he jumped up, his face met the donut Leah was holding in front of his face. Laughing, Leah offered her brother another donut before saying, “Time to get up, Alex. We’re leaving as soon as we eat and load the last of the boxes. Mom says we’ll be driving all day.”
“Come on, Lee! Did you have to shove a donut in my face?” Six years younger than her, Alex was just entering middle school, thinking he was cooler and more mature than his twelve years.
Giving Alex a look, Leah answered, “Of course I had to! Who else can I annoy this early in the morning? Besides, Mom wants us up and helping. You know how she gets on moving day; prickly, bossy, and crazy, I’m not dealing with that by myself.” Leaving her brother, Leah turned halfway out of the room and said, “Besides, if you hurry, you can drive with me rather than with Mom in the truck.” Alex threw off his blankets and tried shoving his sister out of his room, knowing her driving was way better than being stuck with their mom in the giant moving truck.
Laughing, Leah made her way back to her room, grabbing her charger, book, pillows, and blanket; the last of her belongings that needed to be packed away. With a last look at the room that had been hers for the last year, Leah sighed, hoping this next move would bring them closer to finding her missing brother. Her connection to her twin was the only hope she and her mother had, the only thing keeping them from giving up on finding him. Each new location, they looked for any leads to where her father had taken him.
Having moved so often, Leah was used to the last-minute packing, having a routine for the morning of moving days. Now that she was old enough to drive, she and her brother would be on the road first, arriving before their mother, they would have all the bags for toiletries, sleeping, and a few days of clothing. They would also be the ones to open the house up with keys their mother already received a week or so before from the realtor. The siblings would also be the ones to find a place to get take out for the night. By the time their mom would arrive with the moving truck packed full of small furniture and all their other belongings, Leah and Alex should have the beginnings of their new home set up.
Of course, Leah thought to herself, it rarely goes that smoothly. Thinking of the time she had to drive halfway back to their old house when the moving truck had a flat tire and the towing company and the insurance company refused to give her a new truck for another week. They had to keep rewashing their clothes since they only had one spare set each. That was when they decided a few days’ worth of extra clothes were always carried in the car. Leah also thought about the time they had arrived at their new house only to find the old tenants hadn’t left and then tried to steal their still packed boxes. No, these moves are never easy. As she made her way back the driveway and her car, Leah wondered what obstacles this next move would bring her and her family.
After organizing the car with all the blankets and pillows taking up most of the space, and throwing the last of the suitcases into the truck, Leah and Alex said goodbye to their mom and got ready to leave. As they pulled out of the driveway, Leah stopped with one last glance at the house they had lived in for the past year, the average time they spent anywhere. With her silent goodbye over, Leah turned to her brother, “Remember, one hour of my music, then one of yours. Got it? Good. We’ll stop somewhere for lunch in a few hours, does that sound good to you?”
Nodding his head, Alex said, “As long as I get to pick where we eat!” Grinning, knowing that his sister would eat anything but fast food, he planned his revenge for her donut wake-up call that morning. Leah just shook her head, knowing that her brother planned something but agreed to his terms.
Refusing to stop until lunch, Leah drove for four hours before giving in to her brother’s rumbling of needing to stop. Giving up on his fast-food revenge, Alex decided that going to a restaurant was better than getting back in the car, knowing Leah would drive straight to their new house. A daunting thought after so long without any type of layover.
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