Off To Grandma's They Go!
The next morning an air of excitement fills the home. The father heads out to work in step with an orange sun peeking around a distant horizon; while mother begins neatly folding the clothes, towels, and accessories, as she carefully places them inside three opened brown, leather bound suitcases. The gentle mother ne'er spoke a single word, only glancing around toward the door periodically. Lanker awakes from his small child's bed, rolling over the wooden rib along a rather sharp bedside, and onto the cold wood planked floor, flat footed in his casts. He drops down upon his knees, crawling toward his mother diligently at work in the room adjacent to his bedroom.
"What are you doing?" he asks her in a quiet child's voice.
"Getting ready for our big moment today."
"What big moment?" asks the smiling Lanker with a puzzled look on his face.
"The final moment when we head out on our own again," his mother replies, with a ring of good cheer in her fresh voice.
"What do ya mean, mother?" he asks, as his expression of puzzlement transforms into one of sudden serious concern.
"Well son, you wouldn't understand because you were so small when we arrived here, but that time now was more than two years ago."
"I don't understand," Lanker replies, in his easy child's voice.
"You don't worry about any of this. We are not going anywhere until your father arrives from work. So go along and enjoy yourself while you can."
"I don't want to go away anyhow, mother. I like playing with Whammy. If we leave now, I might never get to see her again," Lanker whines.
"Yes, I know you are very content here, son, but sometimes people are better off doing their own thing. Our coming reality may be rough for you to accept in the beginning, but you'll get over it with the passing of time."
Lanker crawls toward Whammy. He hates to break the bad news to her, but he somehow knows he must. He feels like crying as he commences to inform her of the coming proceedings.
"Where are you moving to?" Whammy asks Lanker, with a pleasant smile on her face, but one that attempts to veil its hardening concern.
"I don't know. Mother hasn't told me yet."
"Want me to ask her, dear Lanker?" smiles Tammy.
"Well., if you want to, you can," Lanker replies, with a tear congested whisper.
Whammy races back in toward the bed where Lanker's mother carefully lays the folded clothes out in a row-by-row order before her.
"Lanker told me that you were moving," she pauses as she crawls, glancing upward into Lindza's face. "He did not know where he was moving to, however," Whammy smiles as she spoke to his mother.
"We're going to move in with his grandmother," she replies without emotion, barely even glancing over as she continues to labor on. There is a momentary break in her conversation with the young girl, as she calmly sits with a smile of sincere anticipation on her face for the woman's reply.
"Onto a farm near a small settlement called Hog Waller," continues his mother. "I know you have never heard of it, and probably never will again. The name sounds kind of funny, doesn't it?"
The little dark-haired girl curls up her nose, as she compels herself to continue smiling.
"Hog Waller? Where on earth is that? Doesn't sound like a very nice pace to me!" snaps the little girl, as she represses a burst of laughter.
"It's a place down in Booger-Woods. It sits in front of a huge bayou called The Labyrinth Swamp," replies his mother, still without any noticeable emotion.
The little girl curls her nose up again.
"Never in my life have I heard of such a place. I am not so sure Lanker will like a place such as that, myself. He is much better off staying right here, with us. Booger Woods? Hog Waller? Somehow, I just don't think I ever want to go there."
The mother continues to labor, carefully folding clothes, picking up books, placing combs, nail files, and other personal articles carefully into three opened leather-bound suitcases. She finally breaks a smile.
"I think little Lanker had better come along with us. No sense in us leaving the likes of him here with you all."
A warm broad smile suddenly breaks the little girl's face.
"What kind of people are in such a place as Hog Waller?"
"All kinds of people," replies Lanker's mother. "There are native people, black people, and white folk; you know, the usual kinds that are everywhere else. There are even some Korean people there now, since a few soldiers with foreign wives have returned from fighting this terrible war."
"Are they friendly?" the little girl asks.
"Well, some are friendly, and then some are not so friendly. We all must learn to seek out those who are friendly and pleasant to be around, and avoid those who are not, when possible," replies Lanker's laboring mother without smiling.
The little girl places both hands behind her back, glancing down at her feet as they suddenly commence to shuffle; then she glances back up suddenly, wearing a deeply concerned half smile.
"Are you happy about going?"
"Well, I knew all along this day of our leaving had to arrive. From the moment I arrived, I fully realized this moment would be here before we knew it."
"Daddy told me you would leave soon, and that I might never see Lanker again."
The little girl's warm smile suddenly falls from her face, then she glances back down at her shuffling feet.
"So, tell me, what made your father say such a thing?" asks Lanker's mother, with an inquisitive tone in her voice, seeming odd to the little girl.
"He walked past your room in the hallway late one night. You appeared so uncomfortable in your sleep, like something was bothering you. The way people lay when they sleep is a sign as to what they are thinking when they are awake, he says to me."
Lanker's mother suddenly pauses in her labor, then glares down hard at the young girl.
"What did he mean by saying this is a sign as to what people are thinking?" asks Lanker's mother.
"The way they sleep in at night. If they sleep comfortably, then all must surely be well with them. If they sleep uncomfortably, then there must surely be problems. Our kind guests must not be at peace, he tells me, and are certain to move soon as doing so is possible."
"Your father is a wise man, don't you think?" asks Lanker's mother with a now, suddenly suppressed inquisitiveness.
"Well, he sure is. He knows about everything," laughs Whammy.
Lanker's mother again ceases in her labor, bending closer toward the little girl, as she stands before her.
"Did your father tell you anything else, there young lady?" she asks in a somewhat repressed tone of voice.
"No, he didn't say much else, only that which I just told you," the little girl says, as she glances up into the firm face of the woman standing before her, then back down at her own shuffling feet.
Suddenly the little girl turns and races toward Lanker, who patiently stands awaiting her response in the adjacent room.
"Lanker, I know where you are going."
"Where?"
"A farm in Hog Waller!"
"What?" gasps Lanker, with a look of sheer astonishment on his face.
"A farm somewhere near Booger Woods."
"Where in the world is that?" the little boy gasps again.
"I don't know. I never could figure it out after your mother told me, "the little girl replies with a forced smile.
Lanker begins to cry.
"But I don't want to go there. I don't want to be without you. I may never get to see you again!"
"I know," replies Whammy with a long sigh. "I told your mom so, but she insisted you were going with her. I told her that you were more than welcome to remain here with us. Her reply was still a firm no."
Lanker hangs his head, continuing to cry.
"I don't want to go! I don't want to go!" he suddenly begins to rage.
"But you must," snaps Whammy.
Lanker takes off crawling, scampering underneath a nearby bed, while continuing to cry.
"I will just stay here, and nobody will be able to find me," he sobs from underneath the canopy bed.
Whammy begins to laugh as she chases after him.
"It will be alright," she says as she races up, pausing by the bedside. "Everything will work out just fine. Cheer up!"
The father finally returns home around 2100 hours, as usual. He endures a particularly rough day at work, being required to take on more building projects, and more termite spraying gigs than usual. Yet this trend for overwork was demanded gradually by Hayam. Hendrick noticed this trend but was in no position to question anything. He only endures with rigid stoicism, in perfect acceptance of this dirty card the hand of fate dealt out to him.
The suitcases are already packed. All Hendrick must do is load them up into the car. An hour or so is spent with the two couples saying goodbye in the din area of the home. Olga hugs Lindza closely, with tears welling in her large brown eyes.
"I wish from the bottom of my heart that things could be different. I was only hoping we all could be one big happy family," she speaks in a heavy Polish accent.
"Well, it was high time," says the mother, as she suddenly gazed off into space. "People must make their own way in this world. There was no sense in us living off you, and your family, for so long. Everything was, as it was intended to be, however. We all greatly enjoyed your company, be rest assured."
Hendrick walks up to Hayam, shaking his hand heartily, with great adoration in his eyes, and an expression for it readily apparent on his face. He reaches upward all of a sudden with tears welling in his own eyes, then both people hug, clasping each other closely, and patting one another heavily on the back.
"Thank you for all you have done for us," Hendrik says. "We were in a fix. I don't know what we would have done without the likes of you, and the help of your family."
"It was no problem to any of us," rumbles the heavy deep voice of the giant, Hayam. "You are welcome here for as long as you will stay. Olga and I really were hoping for both our families to live together as one large, happy family."
Lanker crawls over to whammy, gazing up at her through tearing eyes.
"I don't want to go. I love it here. You are my family," he tells her.
Whammy begins to cry upon realizing the Doolittle family really was about to leave.
"When will I see you again, Lanker?" she asks as she gazes into his eyes.
"In my dreams," he tells her in a whispering voice.
"In your dreams? How shall we meet again there?" Whammy asks with a choked laugh.
"In the crystal ball we may see one another again," Lanker continues whispering.
"Maybe," replies Whammy, "the spectrum will show me how. When you are older you can write to me."
"In our minds, in our thoughts when we are all alone, we can meet up with one another once more again," whispers little Lanker with stammering, trembling tear-soaked lips.
The two children hug one another as the parents load up the car with any articles remaining in the home. Inside a span of time seeming to transpire all too quickly, the family is loading up. All too quickly the candy apple red 1955 Oldsmobile is pulling out from the driveway of that lavishly restored, Victorian era home.
As the car motors along, no one speaks a single word. Every person inside the car is filled with his own separate set of emotions and personal thoughts describing events of the past two years. The car is southbound, exiting the borders of Richmond-city, when the first word was ever spoken since the very moment the car first pulled out of the driveway.
The voice of the mother abruptly shatters the heavy silence.