Where's My Father? (The story that changed my life.)

          My fourth grade year of elementary school on a bright, sunny day in April, my mom came to pick me up from school early and of course, just like any other fourth grader, I was excited. I rushed out to the car and put my things in the trunk. When I got there my brother was already sitting in his seat, ready to go, because he was in kindergarten and he got out of school early anyways. When I got into the car my mother told me that we were going on a short vacation, to see my grandmother in New Orleans, Louisiana. "Yay!" I yelled from the backseat.  I couldn't wait. I hadn't seen my grandmother since Christmas.

            My only question for my mother was: "Where is my Dad?" She simply replied with, "I left him a note and told him where we were going. He's not coming." Well I guess that should've been suspicious, but I was only 9 years old  and as far as I knew my mother had never lied to me before. So I believed her. That whole day I was so anxious to get there that time was passing by like a turtle with a paper weight on his back. I couldn't wait to see my grandmother. I remember reading and keeping track of all the road signs telling us how close we were and how many miles we had left to go, counting all the pine trees as they passed on the side of the road, and just to make the time go by a little faster, my brother and I were playing what we liked to call the ABC game, seeing how many letters we could find of the alphabet in the signs around us.

            We were on the road for eight hours that day and we were all so tired that we could barely keep our eyes open, so my mother decided to stop at a cheap Super 8 Motel in Tuscaloosa, Louisiana for the night to rest. It wasn't very homey, but it was affordable so we took it. That evening it was about fifty-five degrees, but it felt like a cold forty degrees because of the cool winds and light rain. The pavement in the parking lot was slick from the rain and oil leaks from previous vehicles and I slipped and scraped my knee as we walked to the room.  My mom picked me up, kissed me on the forehead and told me to be more careful that I didn't need to be getting hurt at a time like this.

 Later that night, in the room, I asked my mom if I could call my dad and she said "No! Go to sleep! We have a long day ahead of us." She seemed so tense when she said it and almost insulted that I'd even asked, but being the sneaky little girl that I was, as soon as she was asleep I got up and found a calling card in her bag and called my dad anyways. When I called my dad he answered with a very worried "Hello?"  The first thing I said when he answered the phone was: "Daddy! We're almost there." Although, what I didn't realize was that instead of just saying it, all the excitement from the trip had burst out into my words and caused me scream it into the phone and hurt my father's ears. This also caused my mother to wake up and take the phone from my hands. I didn't understand most of their conversation because I could only hear my mother's side of it and when I heard her say "They're safe, but I'm not telling you where we're at!" I knew that something was wrong. I also knew that meant when my mother told me she had left my father a note and that he knew where we were going, she lied. I stayed up half that night wondering why my mother had lied to me, wondering if things were going to be okay. I was no longer excited, but now I was worried, upset, angry, and tremendously confused. I may have only been 9 years old, but I knew that my own mother had lied to me and that meant that something was wrong. Very wrong.

I couldn't get to sleep very well at all that night and by the time I did, it seemed like just afterwards it was time to wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and leave.

            Later on that day when we were in the car again, I started asking my mom all the questions I had been pondering in my head the night before, such as: "Why won't you let me talk to my dad?". "Did you really leave him a note?", "Is something wrong?, Why can't he know where we are?", and finally the big one" Why did you lie to me?" Each question I asked had so much emotion. I was angry and worried. I wanted answers, but I didn't get any. My mother just looked at me almost as if she were almost ashamed of herself.

            After we finally got to my grandmothers my mom called my dad and told him that she had been talking to another man over the internet and that he had given her five hundred dollars to leave him. She told him that she wanted a divorce and that she knew if she didn't take my brother and I he wouldn't give her one. The last thing I remember hearing was, "Bring me signed divorce papers and I'll give you the kids!" I remember feeling so alone, like my mother didn't want me anymore and sitting in her lap, crying, begging her to stay. Although she didn't stay and my parents have been divorced and remarried for 9 almost 10 years now. Although this was a terrible situation and has possibly scarred me for life I learned to deal with it, but during this hardship I learned that no matter what you're going through that god is always there when you need a friend to turn to.