I couldn’t believe this. After almost sixteen years of being out of Tennessee I was moving back. I had everything my son and I owned packed into a U-Haul Truck and had my Chevy Tahoe hitched to the back of it. This was a huge risk I was taking moving from my security blanket -also known as Atlanta- back home.
My name is Keeley Owen by the way.
I had one hell of a past there that I really didn’t think I had the strength to endure again. I really didn’t want to relive it and I didn’t want to put my son through living it with me. As if being a sixteen year old boy wasn’t hard enough add having a mother that didn’t know what the hell she was doing half the time to the equation and you have…well, my son. He's pretty amazing. It doesn’t seem to bother him that his mother is a lot younger than most of his friend’s mothers. He doesn’t seem to mind my fuck ups. And believe me there have been some major ones. Most of all though he doesn’t seem to mind my up rooting him from everything he’s ever known and throwing us both down a road that I didn’t know what lay ahead. For the most part he seemed like he was ready for a change too. I sighed and grabbed my bottle of water that was between my legs and took a sip.
“Mom are you sure you don’t want me to drive? You seem like you could use a break.” I heard my son ask.
Christopher Kaden.
He always thinks that he needs to take care of me. Am I really that bad of a parent? I twisted the cap back on the bottle and stuck it back between my legs.
“No honey. I’m fine I promise. Thanks for the offer though. I know you’re itching to use your license on this trip. I promise you will.” I said as I rubbed my hand over his shoulder length blonde hair. He's totally into music and played the guitar. He's a pretty eclectic player and doesn’t limit himself to one genre. He loves it all. So his hair has the rocker theme to it. It was long in length and short in the front. He couldn’t stand the hair in his face, and girls couldn’t stand it when it covered his baby blues. He definitely took after me in the hair department. I blessed him with the blonde and the straightness of his hair. If he had took after his father...well I don’t think he would have liked it much. But those baby blues he definitely didn’t get from me. Those eyes were very much his father’s doing. My shade of blue was much deeper than his or his father’s and definitely didn’t rank in comparison. The music, well the eclectic part I think he inherited from me, but everything else was purely his father. I loved music also, but you get me close to an instrument and I wouldn’t even know what the hell to do. I just listened to it, and I loved it all. This is why I think Kaden got it from me. Everything musical that Kaden laid his hands on came natural, much like his father. He's a pretty good writer too. He can whip out a song, poem, anything, quicker than I have seen anybody do. And I had been witness to a few girls go weak at the knees. That trait I liked to think that his father and I gave to him together. I could write a little something, something. I mean it was my job for crying out loud. I’m an English Teacher by the way. His father shared in the writing department gene as well, but making the girls go weak in the knees came totally from his father. I know that from experience.
“So Gram knows we’re coming?” Kaden asked looking over at me.
“Yep, she’s excited too. I’m surprised she hasn’t called.” I said smiling. It wasn’t a very long trip from Atlanta back to Tennessee but the shorter that it got the bigger the lump in my throat grew. My being nervous was an understatement. I knew I would have to do this someday but damn did it have to be this soon?
“You’re not mad at me are you?” I asked glancing over at him and returning my eyes back to the road.
“About what?”
“Well, about this move and this new job.”
“Not at all. As much as I loved it in Atlanta I’m kind of glad we’re moving. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be completely cut off from the rest of world. There was a reason for Alexander Bell inventing the telephone.”
I smiled and grabbed his hand, “How did you ever turn out this amazing?”
“I guess my momma raised me right.” He said smiling. The southern accent coming through on every word.
“Really think so?”
“Mom despite what you think I’ve learned a lot from you. And you’re not the dead beat parent that you claim to be. You’re like my best friend, we've grown up together.” He said smiling at me.
He had no idea how right he was. I grew up real fast. Going through college pregnant, making sure that I had a roof over mine and my baby’s head, and that we had everything we needed wasn’t easy. Of course my mom helped anyway she could. Mainly she was my source of income when I needed it. Without her there was no way I would have made it through college and maintain the life that I needed for my son and I. I was determined to make it on my own, and I did. I felt the same way about Kaden. He was my best friend the only constant that remained constant in my life.
“I guess you’re right. And if that’s your way of saying I love you without actually saying it and risking your reputation then I love you too.”
“Whatever, Mom.” He said laughing and shaking his head. “Look the sign says we’re not that far from Gram’s.”
Ugh, he was right. Just when I forgot how nervous I was, boom, it hits me again. The sign said:
Memphis “ 25
West Memphis “ 30
I guess I better get over it fast huh?
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