It Started With A Lie

All packed

Harmony

I was packed and ready to go. I just had a few boxes and my suitcase with my clothes. I was going in and out of the apartment that is no longer mine to get my stuff downstairs and pack it into the rental car.

I used the rest of my savings to rent a car because I didn't have one of my own and hiring a mover was expensive, plus it wasn't a lot of stuff anyway. I had money left for food and gas and maybe a stay at a motel on my journey home.

I didn't want to go back home, but I had to under the circumstances. I wasn't going to stay here unemployed and on the street. I know how it is going to look when I turn up at their door. They will probably laugh at me when they see me running back home with my tail under me with no job and no money.

I am going to be the least successful person in my family. I am a complete failure. I don't have anyone to blame for that but myself. I had high hopes, and it had been my downfall.

Next time, I will think small. Going back to my hometown to live and work was something I never wanted to do, but here I am driving the miles to get there. To let everyone know that I am a total failure and that I just wasted years at university when I could be on the farm looking after the animals and helping in the harvest. Instead, I left home to pursue this dumb career, and now it isn't working out.

All because of some shithead who thinks he holds the world in his hands. At least I will be miles away from him and his obnoxious presence.

I left my hometown as a loser, and now I am going back as a loser. Nothing never changed, only my age, which has gone up a few years, and my looks. I went from that nerdy country girl look to an average and more city girl look.

I still have my country lifestyle embedded in my soul, so it will not be difficult to just fit right in again.

The car was too silent, so I turned on the radio and tuned it to my favorite channel. I started singing along to the next song that came on, trying to forget why I was driving in this direction.

I relaxed, forgot all about trouble for now, and just enjoyed the journey. My first stop was a gas station. I needed to use the ladies room and some snacks for the journey. I parked the car, locked it, and walked to the entrance of the gas station.

I found the bathroom first, and when I did my business, I came back out front. I picked up a few snacks and drinks, and I was on the road again.

The second day was the worst. I had to sleep in the car the night before, and I woke up with a cramped neck and a sore back.

It was hard to drive with such discomfort. On long journeys like these, you need a friend—someone to keep you company so the silence doesn't put you to sleep.

This is why I have the radio on a little louder than I would listen to it. I still can't believe I am going home like this.

There were some unfinished business projects that I haven't thought about since I left. things I left unsaid, and people I never wanted to see again.

I will have to avoid them as much as I can, but for how long will I be able to do that in a little town?

I need to get a job as soon as possible. I love my parents and my entire family, but I am not looking forward to living in a house with 12 people.

I am going to need my privacy, quietness, and long showers, and I don't think these will be possible with so many people under the same roof.

But let's not worry about that now. I need to get there first. The rest of the trip went by in a flash. Night by day and day by night, I am finally entering the small town that is my hometown.

I drive past familiar buildings, places I used to hang out when I was younger, and then I drive past houses until I reach my childhood home. I parked in the driveway, and I slowly took a deep breath, preparing for what was going to happen.

I walked up to the front door, ready to knock, but suddenly the door was thrown open, and I was enveloped in hands hugging me. I didn't have to break the hug to know who was hugging me. I could tell that it was my mother who was hugging me and never wanting to let me go.

"It's good to see you too, Mom, but I can't breathe." I told her, hugging her back.

"I'm sorry. You just surprised me. Why didn't you call and tell us that you're coming to visit? I would have prepared something for you to eat." She said she was frowning at me in a disappointing way.

"I'm not here for a visit, mom." I told her vaguely.

"Oh..." She was disappointed that I wasn't staying for the day.

"Because I'm here to live with you guys until I find somewhere else for myself." I watch as her face brightens up like a kid on Christmas.

She smiled and hugged me in a bone-crushing grip. "I'm so happy you're staying because I really missed my little girl." She said it in my hair.

"Me too, but if you keep holding me like this, I think I will die of lack of oxygen." I was forced out.

She let me go and laughed. She grabbed a hold of my hands and pulled me towards my childhood home, where I'll be staying for a while.

"Mom, I need to get my bags out of the car and..." I was trying to tell her to slow down.

"Don't worry, one of you brothers will get it for you, but for now, that can wait." She was overjoyed.

I didn't protest anymore, not even when I almost fell on my face. Her joy and smile were contagious, and I couldn't stop smiling myself to see that my being home made her happy.

It's a relief because I thought they weren't going to welcome me home. Well, she is, and I don't know about the rest of the family. I have been gone for years, and the last thing I told them was that I wasn't going to come back to live here again.

Now look at me with my mother dragging me inside the house with the rental car outside with all my belongings.

"Hey everyone, look who just got here!" My mother shouted excitedly, closing the door behind us and walking towards the living room.

I follow her hesitantly to the living room, where I think everyone is.

"Hey everyone, you would guess who I found outside." She said excitement was dripping with each word.

There were murmurs in the room. "Please don't tell me it's the Johnson again; we already told them we are not interested." Someone shouted over all the murmuring.

"No, aunty, it's not the Johnson. It's someone we all miss." She said.

I decided that that was my cue, so I walked into the living room, where almost everyone was gathered, like they knew that I was coming.

"Harmony!" There was a chorus of my name and bright smiles, and people were getting up to welcome me home. "We miss you so much."

"Especially your cooking." Someone else shouted, and everyone started to laugh.

Their smile was contagious, and I was smiling and laughing until my jaw hurt. I haven't smiled or laughed like this since I left home. It was like a breath of fresh air.

"Everyone, I have an announcement to make." My mother said I was standing up, still wearing that smile from when I had just arrived. The room went silent, and she smiled at me. "Harmony is here to stay."

"We know that she is here; where else would she go at these hours and after that long drive hearing?" said one of my aunts.

"I mean that she isn't going back to the city; she is going to make a home here and hopefully a family. So she is staying here permanently." She said.

First, the room was silent, then I was met by a more warm welcome smile and congratulations.