Through the Eyes of a Child

Chapter 1

The day drudged along as we inched our way through the rush hour traffic.

I still can't believe Jim is making us do this.
I turn and glare at him from the passenger's seat there he is Jim as I usually refer to him as,
because calling him my father is just too hard at times,
because the father that is sitting next to me now is nothing like the father he used to be.

 The one I used to run to for bear hugs and encouragement when I was little.

No, that father is gone, replaced by some annoying plastic shell of who he used to be. 

Just a man named Jim sits there now driving us to our new home our brand new start as he keeps calling it.

All I can see is a man that I once cared about ripping me away from the only home and life that I have ever known,

to some new place that I couldn't care less about,

just to save his own pride and embarrassment because he can't handle the truth that his own teen aged son just might be crazy.

 Maybe I am crazy because there can be no other explanation of the visions that I keep having which seem to be getting worse with each passing year.

She was the first one I had, the night she was taken away from us.

I was only five when it happened but that night with my mother's death my childhood died with her.

 So here I am now ten years later in the car with Jim, as he sits with his hands loosely gripping the steering wheel as he stares on at the traffic in front of him without a care in the world,
with the fakest smile on his face he should be on the Miss. America stage ready to tell the world his plans on stopping global warming.

 I drop my gaze just as I see him turn towards me probably to give me another speech about, how this move will be good for us a new beginning.

I brace myself for the talk but thankfully he just reaches for the knob to turn on the radio, he turns the dial skimming through the stations of static and different voices until he lands on... Oh great, 

  The Hey Hey We're the monkeys song,   he then looks towards me snapping his fingers with such a grin of satisfaction on his face because he knows that he's gotten not only my attention but under my skin as well, I roll my eyes in protest at the horrible sounds and voices coming out of our old car's speakers. I try to tune it out by turning the other way and staring at the other cars on the road stuck in the never ending parking lot just like us.

 It was working for a little while but when a new annoying song started playing, he decided to declare all-out war and turned up the volume, that was it, he obviously wants my attention now he's got it. So I leaned forward and turned the knob to one of my favorite techno stations and turned up the volume even more. I then propped my feet up on the dash and waited for his next move.

 But as quickly as the battle began it was abruptly ended with one click of the knob followed by,  

" Fine if I can't listen to my song then we'll listen to nothing, and get your feet off the dash or I'll do it for you."

 "That's fine by me" I said as I slowly lowered my feet and went back to staring out the window. By now the sun was settling down in the sky turning the once white clouds into beautiful hues of pink and red, and one by one the cars on the road were turning on their headlights to combat the night's sky as it trickled in. I glanced over at the clock in the dash it was now 7:30.

 I thought we would have been there by now but who knows hes probably gotten us lost. Either way I decided to break the ice and find out. 

"Hey dad just curious,  how much longer it will be until we get there?"  

"Oh, so now you care where we are going he snapped back."

"Yeah, I do care, I care about how much longer I have to be cooped up in this stupid car with you." And with that I think I started round two,  and if I wasn't sure the daggers for eyes my father was giving me now were all the reassurance I needed.

 But to my surprise, He just lowered his eyes and opened the center console and took out a yellow spiraled notebook. He turned back a few pages and then placed it in my lap. I looked down at the page it was the directions to the house as well as a picture of it paper clipped to the top .

 I had never seen any pictures of the new place till now I didn't want to. My finger tips slid across the middle of the picture, it actually didn't look that bad amazingly enough considering who picked it out. It was a small older home, painted a nice shade of pale blue with white trimming. I shifted my eyes back to the directions, just as Jim chimed in.

 "So are you going to read off what exit we need or just stare at the pages all night?" I smiled a little and began reading aloud the directions,

" Well from whats here it looks like we need to find exit 87, and the last exit sign we just passed was 85."

 We then switched lanes and waited for the numbered 87 to come up and turned to the right to finally exit off the highway. The highway transitioned into a much bumpier road as we approached a traffic light. The old street sign hanging next to the light swayed in the breeze as our headlights reflected off of it Mockingbird Ave was its name. Jim then nudged at my shoulder,

 "Ok navigator where to next?"

" Well it says  we need to make a right on Mockingbird Ave and then another right into the Whispering Hills housing complex."

We bumped along in our car and made the final turns into the complex. We went to the very end of the street named red oak and then off to the left there it was the house.