In My Mother's Footsteps: Chapter Twenty One
Disclaimer.
I do not own Disney, and therefore do not own any of these characters.
Miley.
I ducked out into the hallway while Charlotte changed into the jeans and shirt I had brought with us for after the show.
"You ready?" I asked, holding my cell phone to my ear. It crackled back before the person on the other end answered.
"We just landed."
"Great," I whispered, "we'll be there in about fifteen minutes."
Charlotte.
I was glad when we finally got into the car, away from the flashing lights and shouted questions. Miley was flipping through an old CD case left in the car.
"Oh listen to this!" she ordered, putting in a green disc. "I absolutely loved this song when I was in your position." The song opened with a quick guitar intro before I heard the voice I remembered from years ago when her music filled the house. Shania Twain.
I'm
gonna hold on-- I
had a baby at fifteen-- I'm gonna hold on-- Her smile got me through the
day-- I worked night and day to keep us
goin' I'm gonna hold on-- Her smile got me through the years-- Her smile got me through the day-- I'm gonna hold
on--
'cause what I believe in is so strong
No matter
how long, no one
Can tell me I'm wrong--I ain't goin' down
daddy never did forgive me
I never
heard from the guy again
I had to drop outta high
school--
everybody treated me so cruel
But I didn't give in and
giver her away
'cause what I believe in
is so strong
No matter how long, no one
Can tell me I'm
wrong--I ain't goin' down
and every night I'd pray
I could give her enough
At
night I'd lie awake and cry--
hopin' we'd get by
'Cause you
can't live on love
Through the sweat and tears
without her knowin'
It was
worth it just to watch her grow
Oh, oh, at least I was able to
hold her
Whenever she needed my shoulder
I'm so glad I never
let her go
'cause what I believe in is
so strong
No matter how long, no one
Can tell me I'm wrong--I
ain't goin' down
dried
away the tears
And filled me with hope
At night I'd lie awake
and cry--
prayed we would get by
And for the courage to
cope
Oh, oh, oh
and
every night I'd pray
I could give her enough
'cause what I believe in is so strong
No matter how long,
no one
Can tell me I'm wrong--I ain't goin' down
No
on can tell me I'm wrong
I'm
gonna hold on--
'cause what I believe in is so strong
No matter
how long, no one
Can tell me I'm wrong--I ain't goin' down
I ain't goin' down
I didn't know how to feel about the song. It was half motivating, half warning for the hardships that were ahead of me. How does anyone react to that? But I didn't have to, because as the song ended the car – I hadn't noticed where we were going, but it wasn't home – pulled up against a busy curb.
"I have a surprise for you." Miley told me, grabbing my hand, and pulling me out of the car. Another surprise today? The last thing I wanted to do was interact with people. Really, the best present anyone could give me would be to just let me curl up under the covers with all the seasons of Scrubs and my favorite ice cream. That would be heaven right about now. But Miley kept pulling me through the ever-moving crowd. I knew where we were. I had never been here before, but I recognized the luggage carousel and lost looks that were part of every airport in the world. So what famous person that Miley knew would I be forced to meet now? Don't get me wrong, I loved meeting her friends. Just not right now. But she wasn't pulling me ahead towards any crowd of fans that would surround a famous friend. Instead she was leading me to a large group of people watching non-descript black bag after black bag pass by. Wait. I recognized the short brown hair, slightly graying, of the only woman in the group. And the unmistakable bruise on the youngest girl's neck. I knew that scar – from a misshapen hair cut incident that had ended her mother's insistence on cutting all of the kid's hair to lower costs.
"Ohmigosh!" I screamed, wrapping my arms around the family member closest to me, my old roommate Jennifer Lauren.
"Hey Charlotte." She said, smiling. Everybody turned as I let go, and moments later I was sucked into a hug by Lisa.
"Charlie." She laughed, running a hand through my hair. "I've missed you so much."
"Back at you." I replied, snuggling into her. Soon everybody was in on the hug and I could hardly breathe.
"Watch out!" Lisa warned, "don't smoosh the baby!" Everybody fell off of us and I straightened up.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, incredulous, as we headed for the door.
"We couldn't not come to your baby shower." Alison explained, adjusting Jon on her hip.
"Aww you guys!"
Miley.
I tailed behind as Charlotte got re-acquainted with her old foster family. I felt so out of place in their world. But before I could fall into my own thoughts I heard my name.
"So has Miley been treating you well?" Lisa had asked. Charlie didn't hesitate in her enthusiastic response.
"She's the best Lisa. You won't believe how great she's been about all of this. And she completely sees what I mean about how I don't want to rely on her completely, but if I want a good education and to be a good parent I can't really worry about a job too. So she's helping me with the money as long as I keep up my grades and stuff. I really couldn't see anyone being as understanding about all of this because hardly anyone's been through it."
I glowed a little as she said this, not immediately registering the emotion. It was pride. Pride in myself, but also in Charlotte. As much as she bragged about me, I wanted to brag about her a thousand times more. She was being so brave and was thinking every big decision through. She understood the decisions she was making, and that the road would be hard, and she accepted that. It was more than I had done when I was two years older than she was now.
Charlotte.
The car ride home was fun, everyone talking at once, trying to catch me up on the goings on at home while asking questions about being "famous" – what was Oprah like? What was it like to walk down a red carpet?
When the car stopped at home I was the first one in the door. The room was dark for a moment before the lights burst on and everybody yelled surprise!, scaring me a little bit. But I recognized every face and knew they were all people that truly cared about me. There were my three sets of parents – my foster family and their kids, my mother and almost-step father that I lived with, and the father and step mother that visited often. There was Miley's fathers, and a few of her close Nashville relatives, including her brother Jackson and his three little girls. There were her and Noah's closest friends who didn't need to knock at the door and seemed almost to live in the mansion I now called home. And as I stood there, surrounded by people that loved me, I felt a pang of remorse for the ones I loved that couldn't be here. There was Tommy, taken away by his mother who I knew wanted with all of his heart to see me. And there was my original adoptive family. I had hardly any memories left of them, but I remembered that in their care I had felt safe and loved.
In that moment, I knew that I could get through anything with these people behind me, in memory or in reality.
Author's Note.
The song is "I Ain't Goin Down" by Shania Twain. No copyright infringement intended.