A Place to Be!

A Place to Be Chapter One “Oh no you don’t! You get back in there, Chickee!” Emilynn pushed the chicken back into the pen with her foot as she struggled to get through the shaky door without dropping her eggs. It started sprinkling again! She hurriedly latched the door. Holding the basket tight she trudged to the house through the muck and weeds that was their back yard. She tried to stay on the pieces of cardboard she had laid down for a path, but with the drizzle, it was getting slippery. It didn’t help that the remnants of the chicken house stuck to the soles of her shoes. Her dad was always going to get around to sowing some seed. “Humph!” was all Emilynn could muster. Emilynn reached the back porch and shook the rain out of her hair. Just as she began to stamp the wet crude from the chicken house off her shoes, it began to pour. “Ha,” she chuckled as she pointed her face to the sky and scrunched her nose. “Made it!” Thunder rumbled overhead. She looked toward the East. She could see lightening flashing sporadically through the dark clouds. “When it’s over then I will go. I just don’t belong here anymore,” she thought to herself. The back door creaked loudly as she shoved herself into the tiny kitchen and banged the door shut. She didn’t need to be quiet. He wouldn’t wake up. He never did. There he was with his head on the kitchen table, sleeping. Her dad, Wilbur Mellars. “Passed out again as always!” she said under her breath. She stood looking at him. For a moment she almost allowed herself to pity him. But quickly caught herself. “Nope! Don’t go there. Not today!” she scolded herself. Emilynn Mellars had made up her mind. She would not stay here another day. She was suffocating in this stagnant life. She had to find a place where somebody cared, and her life had meaning. She looked around the kitchen at the things that had once been her mother’s. She felt buried in the memories of mama singing in this kitchen as she cooked. She remembered her dad picking her up when she was younger and swinging her around the moment he came home from work. When the accident at work left him unable to do what he had done for 20 years he started drinking. He detested receiving his disability check each month for doing nothing. He did odd jobs just to keep busy. She looked down at her snoring dad. As she was noticing his greasy hair and unkept whiskers, she thought to herself. “Thankfully, he was never an angry or mean drunk.” Emily knew he loved her mother and her. She could not deny that. She shook that thought away as well. “But knowing that doesn’t help anymore. It isn’t enough.” After her mother died 2 years ago, her dad completely drowned himself in alcohol. It hurt that he was oblivious to her pain. Sure, he lost his job and his wife, but she lost a mother. Now his daughter was lost to him, too! They had no family. Her dad insisted on a graveside funeral with just the mortuary owner, himself, and Emilynn. No neighbors allowed. There was no one to help them grieve. Some church ladies, mama knew, came by once with a casserole, but dad sent them away. No amount of pleading or begging could get him to agree to get help. So, Emilynn made up her mind when she graduated, she was leaving. That was a year ago. She held off long enough. Her plan was to leave as soon as the rain let up. But where would she go? They had no family. She had distant cousins somewhere she had never met. The only place she could think of to go, was to her mother’s best friend in high school, Emily Hendricks. According to her mom, Emily’s family had been well to do while her mother’s family was poor. Even so, they had become close friends. Many times, her mama’s best friend had given her nice hand me down clothes. Even though Emilynn’s mama had not seen her friend since high school, she talked about her often, as if they kept in touch. Emilynn was named after her mama’s best friend. Emilynn put the eggs in the refrigerator and scribbled a post note which read “Goodbye, Dad! Don’t forget to feed the chickens. Emily.” “Short and to the point,” Emily mused. She had warned him she would leave. She stuck the post note on the coffee pot. It was ready as usual. All he had to do was turn it on like he did every morning when he finally woke up. She went to her bathroom, showered, and put on the clean clothes she laid out the night before. Her only suitcase was already packed. Once again Emilynn checked to make sure her savings and her debit card were safe in her purse. She looked out her bedroom window. The rain had stopped for now. Slipping quietly into her jacket, she picked up her suitcase and went to the front door. She could still hear her dad snoring in the kitchen. She opened the door, slipped through, and closed it till it latched. She jumped over puddles to get to her car and put the suitcase in the backseat. She got in, let out a deep sigh and turned the key. The motor grumbled to life. Emilynn drove all day through intermittent sprinkles. Her mind was a jumble of memories and high hopes. She refused to worry about her dad, the house, and the chickens. The sun had been trying to peek through grey low-lying clouds all day but to no avail. Somehow her newfound freedom was muddled by the gloomy weather. Her tummy grumbled and she realized she had not eaten breakfast and had driven through lunch. She looked down at her gages and realized her cars tank was getting low as well. Emily sat up straight and thought to herself. “Better find someplace to get gas and something to eat. Might as well find someplace to stay the night. I better pay closer attention to what I am doing. It’s all up to me now.” She picked up her cell phone, took a quick look and clicked on the microphone to voice activated google. “Gas station near me,” she commanded. A voice came on and answered, “here are the listings of gas stations near you.” She looked down and realized she better pull over to read this if she wanted to get where she was going alive.