January 2nd 2017

Chapter 2
Her Departure From The Expected

Maya had lost any and all ability to retain a single word of what her mother said for a while after she heard 'we're moving' followed by their destination. Texas. It could have been anywhere really, any place outside of the city where she had been born and raised, where everything and everyone she knew existed, and she would have had the same reaction.

"Maya, are you listening to me?" she eventually heard her mother, and she looked back at her. Her mother knew this would be a shock to her, that had been the look on her face when she'd opened the door. Then Maya had seen a stack of empty boxes sitting there, the kind they would have flattened and waiting to be picked up for trash or recycling at the diner. Some of them already looked like they had been filled. There had been no chance to approach the subject in any way that wasn't simple or direct.

"But… why, but… no," she stepped back. "No way."

"It's a great opportunity, for both of us. I've got listings for a house out there, Maya, a real house. Won't that be great?" She was excited, her mother was so excited, but cautious, too. She wanted Maya to be excited, too. She could only stare at her mother, taking in her face, thinking of what she might tell her in response. "It'll be small, but bigger than here."

"We…" She paused, took a breath She couldn't explode, not now. "We can't afford that, can we? If we did, we…" Her mother blinked. "Mom? Who…" She didn't even have to say it. Suddenly she was remembering a look on Mr. Matthews' face and it all came together. Them. They were giving her the money… of course they would. "Does Riley know?"

"No," her mother quickly assured her. "I wanted you to know first. Maya… This is a good thing. It's going to be hard at first, for me, too…"

"I don't want to go." There, she'd said it. Her mother's face gave a twinge, as she'd known it would, but she couldn't just lie and pretend this felt good to her, could she? "This is my whole world, I can't just… start over because you…" She stopped herself just short of saying something she knew she would have regretted, but the damage was about as good as done.

"Listen now, Maya," her mother breathed out. "I knew you'd have trouble with this, but I need you to trust me when I tell you I didn't make this choice lightly. You are thirteen, I know right now you're not seeing the big picture, but you have to. I work, every day, to give you the best life I can, and this…" she gestured around the room, "This isn't it, baby girl. This chance, in Austin, it will change everything for us, I know it will, and I need you to have faith in that, too." She was just on the verge of pulling some kind of 'we are going and you have no say in it.'

"I…" Maya tried to speak, but all she could feel was a lump in her throat and tears in her eyes, stinging.

"Maya…" her mother moved toward her, arms raising to embrace her, but at that moment she backed away and ran for her room, shutting the door and leaning to it.

Maybe in time her head would clear and she would find a way to look at this like it was something more than the sudden implosion of her life. Right now, her brain felt unable to produce anything but a jumble of panic and alarm. This wasn't real, this was a nightmare. Any moment now, she would wake up and it would go away. These real feelings, the pounding in her chest, they only felt real because her mind was playing tricks on her. Any moment now… It would happen… She would wake up… wake up… Wake up!

Her stomach was growling, violently. Twenty minutes had gone by, and she was still here. The panic had started to settle, but all that did was to force her to come to a terrible conclusion. If this was a nightmare, it was the waking kind. This was really happening. They were moving to Texas. Just thinking it, the lump in her throat got tighter.

She didn't want to go out there, not yet. She couldn't face her mother. But she needed food, she needed… Riley… while she still had her. She texted. 'Come quick. Bring food.'

Looking around at her room, she wondered how long she could stay in here before she really had to get out. She could go by the window, she… No… She was upset at her mother but not that much. Still, she might change her mind. Their life was what it was, but it wasn't as bad as she made it sound, was it? Why would they have to go all the way to Texas to make it better? She may have complained, sometimes, but she would take it all back, immediately, if it meant they got to stay… She would be the most satisfied girl on the planet if that was what it took.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners