Hiding in Plain Sight (Slowly Updating)

Lit Candles

     Erik grabbed his phone from his room and started to take pictures of every room like he said.  I just stood there shocked still in the kitchen but in my defense at least I am no longer at the table. I moved to the sink, so I could splash water on my face. 

    It took a few minutes for my mind to completely comprehend exactly what just happened.   I'm going to be free from her for two weeks.  Once  that fact sunk in my brain started to analyze what Erik's plan may be.  Then I realized what it was and I was off to his car.  When I got to the driveway Erik's car and the moving truck was only thing there.  They left without telling us goodbye.  I didn't know if I should feel insulted or relieved.  I went with relieved after a quick assessment of the situation.  If they had said goodbye we may have had a confrontation with her.

      I opened his car door leaned in and touched the screen on the GPS.  The destination flashed on the screen  15763 Elm Drive Charleston, South Carolina.  "I got the address papa, do you have the pictures ready?"  I started walking toward the door.  "Yeah all taken care of, starting laptop now should be up and ready by the time you get up here."  This is one of those days when I love our bond. 

     True to his word by the time I got to his room he was sitting on his bed and had the laptop ironically on his lap.  He looked up and grinned, "So, what's the address?"  After I told him we both looked at the screen at the two story gray house.  It was actually pretty nice.  It had a garage, perfect.

     "You ready to do this? I've got to move our stuff from the u-haul once we do we gonna bring it back since we won't need it now."

     Erik was giving me a confused look.  Did he already forget the abilities he was ready to exploit earlier.  I quickly concentrated moving all of our things to my room where they would be out of the way.  I'm starting to wonder about my brother's sanity today.  He is acting off still I know I should figure out what it is but there is so much other things I need to do so we can actually enjoy our two weeks.

     "Do you think you can pull off being dad and tell them we are not going to need it after all but instead of reimbursing the credit card you would like the difference in cash.  I will follow you in the car once we get home we'll head to the new house and as long as you feed me we should be all moved in by this afternoon including your car in the garage."

     Erik gave me his lopsided grin that made his dimples pop.  "Of course I can do this baby bear.  I can be a better parent than them any day."

     I laughed at what he implied and nodded my head in agreement.  It only took a minute to make Erik look just like Dad. 

     He walked calmly to the u-haul got in and waited patiently for me to follow in his car.  Secretly I hated driving, but to just disappear from the u-haul place would raise too many flags.  It only took about 15 minutes to get there.  I stood next to Erik as he explained it all to the man and oddly ended up with almost $500 to put in his wallet at the end.   He grabbed my hand as he led me to his car.  As soon as we left the parking lot he let out a sigh.  He pulled into a shopping center a few miles away.

      As soon as the car was parked he turned to me and pleaded, "please, please baby bear make me me again I feel like my sanity is being sucked away every second I have to look like him."

     I hugged him as I shifted him back to himself.  "Come on papa bear let's get back to the house and start moving."

     I must have said something right because Erik's smile was back as he put the car back into gear to head back to the house for hopefully the last time.

    After we pulled up we both got out of the car and went through the front door.  As soon as we were through the door we grabbed each other's hand and I closed my eyes visualizing the inside of the garage at the new house.  When I opened my eyes next I was looking at white walls behind Erik's shoulder.