“Ethan?” Rachel asked, putting her
hand on her son’s shoulder where he sat next to her on the passenger seat.
He was in that awkward phase; not the child he used to be
anymore, but he had yet to grow into the man he was to become. His limbs were
long and gangly, and he snored lightly as he slept.
She shook him again.
“Ethan, honey, wake up.”
His head lolled to the side, but he jerked himself upright
and blinked sleepy eyes at her. Brown eyes—just like his father. But Ethan was
nothing like Rob. He was kind and gentle where Rob was domineering and rough
around the edges.
“We’re five minutes out,” Rachel said.
When Ethan was a toddler and he fell asleep in the car, she
used to let him sleep until they arrived. Then she’d carry him inside with his
head on her shoulder, his small body a dead weight in her arms.
Now, as her son was growing up, she woke him five minutes
before they arrived so he had a chance to wake up, get his wits about him, and
be ready for what lay ahead.
She remembered what it was like to be a teenager. Time to
pull yourself together was always welcome, and after the divorce, Rachel could use
the time to put on her proverbial suit of armor before something happened, too.
It never hurt to be prepared.
“Oh,” Ethan said as he stretched. “That was fast.”
Rachel nodded and smiled. “The trip is a quick one if you’re
asleep.”
Ethan looked out of the window at the scenery sliding by.
They drove through the rolling hills of Tennessee, dotted with pastures and
fields, and a lazy river slowly wound its way through it. The landscape was
beautiful—so different from Miami where Rachel had spent most of her adult
life. It had been the only home Ethan had ever known.
But with the divorce being as ugly as it was, Rachel had
felt the need for change. She wanted a new life, a blank slate, and something
completely different from what they’d known all their lives.
They did say change was as good as a holiday. Rachel hoped
it was true.
Not long after, a large sign with old-style writing welcomed
them to the small town of Maplewood Grove.
This was going to be their new home.
When they drove into town, it was like something from a
fairy tale. They drove around a central town square with an old courthouse.
Main Street seemed to be the heart of Maplewood Grove. The
street was lined with quaint, family-owned type shops, boasting the original
timber facades that had been painted with welcoming hues of reds, blues, and
yellows.
They passed a hardware store, antique shops, and a barber.
“It’s like we went back into the past,” Ethan muttered.
“Look at the ice cream shop.”
He was right. The ice cream parlor had a vintage sign that
promised sweet treats, and it looked like something from the seventies.
All around them, townsfolk waved at each other, stopping for
a chat. They all knew each other, it seemed. A few people glanced curiously at
Rachel and Ethan as they drove past. In a town this small, where everyone knew
each other, they would know that Rachel and Ethan were strangers.
Her stomach twisted at the thought, but she pushed it away.
They needed this change. They’d needed to get away from Rob,
from the life filled with uncertainty, and here in Maplewood Grove, they
wouldn’t be strangers forever.
“It’s like a movie,” Ethan murmured.
“It is,” Rachel agreed. “Oh, look.” She pointed in the
direction of the school they passed. It was nestled at the edge of town and
surrounded by lush greenery, which seemed to characterize so much of the town. Red
brickwork, large, paneled windows, and a clocktower that chimed when they drove
past made Rachel think this was one of the older buildings in town. Over the
years, the school had been expanded to include more modern buildings that were
purely concrete.
Manicured lawns and old trees around the building looked
inviting, with picnic benches under them. Behind the school, they drove past
athletic fields, football fields, and a running track.
A big banner against the school read “Go Maplewood Grove
Mustangs!”
Ethan didn’t answer, and Rachel wondered what he was
thinking. The divorce had been hard on him, and he didn’t like change. This
move had been tough for him to digest. But Rob hadn’t been good for him, and
leaving behind the life he knew, including the friends he’d made, had been a
necessary evil.
“It’s going to be fine, honey,” Rachel said.
“I know,” Ethan said.
Neither of them sounded completely convinced, but this was
one of those things where they just had to take every day as it came. There was
no more preparing she could do than that.
They turned into a residential area where the homes had wide
porches and flowering gardens. Children played in the yards and neighbors
chatted across fences.
Rachel followed the directions she’d gotten in the email and
finally found their rental house. It was tucked into a quiet, leafy street a
few blocks away from Main Street.
“Oh wow,” she said when she finally saw the house. “I think
this is it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” she said and glanced at the address again. “The
letting agent said that it was a blue house.”
“That house is very blue,” Ethan pointed out.
Rachel only nodded.
The home had only one story, with a front porch adorned with
hanging baskets of petunias and ferns. The house was clad in clapboard, faded
over the years, that was painted light blue with white trims around the windows
and door.
It was hard to believe they’d come this far.
The gravel crunched under their tires when Rachel turned
into the driveway. She noticed a vintage mailbox, a wooden swing hanging from
an oak tree in the yard, and around the back she noticed a small patio and a
backyard.
Rachel and Ethan got out of the car, and she opened the
trunk. Ethan took the two heaviest bags, dragging them out and dropping them on
the gravel.
“I’ve got these,” Rachel said, pulling sling bags and a backpack
from the car.
They’d packed all their things into bags, taking only their
clothes and most precious personal belongings.
Rachel had given Rob everything else—she hadn’t fought him
on the house, the furniture, the joint accounts. It had been easier to let him
have it and walk away. Sometimes it was better to cut your losses than to stay
in an unhealthy situation that wasn’t good for her or Ethan.
The home they’d rented was furnished, and they would live
here until Rachel could find a way to start over and buy their own home and
their own things.
She walked onto the porch first and found the keys in a
lockbox against the wall just as the letting agent had said. She opened the box
with the code and unlocked the door. When she stepped into the home, it had a
welcoming warmth to it with a combination of modern comfort and rustic charm.
The open-plan living space blended the living room, dining
room, and kitchen together. Overstuffed sofas and matching armchairs faced a
large television. A vintage rug with an intricate pattern added a touch of
color to the neutral furniture, and the dark wood bookshelf against the wall held
a mix of books and board games.
A stone fireplace in the center of the room looked like it
could create the perfect cozy atmosphere in winter.
On the other side, the dining room had a solid wood table
and a mix of chairs. The window looked out over the backyard.
And finally, the kitchen had open shelves that displayed the
dishes and glassware. The countertops were made of polished wood, and a central
island with stools looked like the place where they would be eating their meals
instead of in the dining room.
“What do you think?” Rachel asked, turning to Ethan.
“It looks like the photos,” he said dully.
“Well, yes,” she said. “But it feels different when
you’re here in real life, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Ethan said, and he headed toward the hallway that
led to the bedrooms.
Rachel sighed. Ethan didn’t often show what he thought and
felt, and she worried that he was struggling more than he let on.
She followed him down the hallway.
The bedrooms were more rustic than the living room. The main
bedroom had a wrought-iron, queen-size bed with white linens and a beautiful
handmade quilt. A vintage dresser faced the bed, and a reading nook by the
window formed a cute retreat.
When Rachel checked her phone, she had a slew of messages
from Rob.
Are you there yet?
What does the house look like?
I want to talk to Ethan.
You can’t keep ignoring me, he’s my son too.
She sighed. They’d been sent in quick succession.
Rachel might have been free of Rob with the divorce, but
they’d had Ethan together, and no matter how much she wanted to never hear from
Rob again, they had to coparent as best they could. Ethan deserved to have a
relationship with his father, and Rachel wouldn’t let her personal relationship
with Rob interfere with what Ethan and his dad shared.
Not that that relationship went very smoothly, either. But
still, Rob had a legal right to know about his son’s well-being, if nothing
else.
Just arrived, Rachel typed in reply. Still getting
settled. I’ll have him call you later when we get a chance to breathe. House is
fine.
She knew he would reply demanding to know more, demanding
all her time and attention, so Rachel set her phone to mute for a while so that
Rob didn’t keep making her anxious.
She walked to Ethan’s room, taking his backpack to him that
she’d taken from the car.
“Oh, this is nice,” she said.
His room was more modern, with a comfortable twin bed and a
desk for studying, shelves with books, and space for him to put his own things.
“You can put up posters and unpack your stuff however you
want,” Rachel said. “The letting agent said we should do whatever we want to
make ourselves at home.
“Okay,” Ethan said.
“Hey, look at me,” Rachel said, and Ethan looked up at her
with his deep blue eyes. Rachel pushed his dark hair out of his face. “It’s
going to be fine. We’re going to figure it out.”
“I know,” he said.
“I know it sucks right now and change is hard, but it won’t
be so foreign forever.”
Ethan only shrugged and turned away from her.
“You just need to call your dad a bit later and let him know
you’re okay.”
“Do I have to?” Ethan asked.
“Unfortunately. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation.
I’ll call for supper halfway through so you have an excuse to cut it short.
Deal?”
Ethan grumbled something that sounded like an agreement, and
Rachel sighed. She hated that this was how things were between her and Rob, and
Ethan and Rob, but they were making the best of a bad situation.
At least, she and Ethan would always be together, and she
had his back, no matter what. She just hoped he understood that, too.
“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?” she
asked his back when he was turned away from her again.
He only nodded, and Rachel sighed, finally leaving the room
and leaving her son alone.
Ethan was sixteen, and she knew it was the phase in which he
pulled away from her. He used to be so attached to her when he was younger,
sharing his whole life with her. But when things had started going wrong with
Rob, Rachel had had less and less time and energy to deal with the years that
would come for Ethan, and now that he was a teenager, it felt like this huge
chasm between them.
She hoped that they could bridge that gap while they were
here, find a way to reach each other again.
In her own room, Rachel started to unpack her clothes into
the empty closet and dresser. It felt strange to make herself at home in a
place where nothing truly belonged to her, but this was just the first step.
She simply had to keep reminding herself that the first step was the important
one, because she’d made that change, broken away, and started over when it was
what they’d needed.
What would come after would be another step, and after
enough steps, they would be in a different place.
She hoped that they could find a way to be happy here.
Rachel would start her new job as an assistant at a small office soon, and
Ethan would go to school and hopefully make some friends. When they started to
get to know people around town, they would feel less like outsiders.
This was day one. She just had to keep reminding herself
that day one was the hardest and slowly but surely, the days that followed
would become easier and easier until neither of them could believe how
different their lives were and how happy they’d become.
At least, that was what Rachel hoped for.
