"This wasn't really a bad experience."
"What experience?," firmly asks the father in return.
"The past two years."
"The past two years?," the father asks in return. "I'd say it could be more defined as a mixture of time spent, most of it good, then some not so good. I would never go as far as to say that any of it was really bad, however."
"Any thoughts of what might be possibly labeled as being bad, could have certainly been much worse, if the worst had intended to arrive upon our doorstep," the mother replies as the father sighs deeply.
"What on earth are you referring to?," asks the father with a puzzled look on his face.
"Nothing specific in particular, just making a statement of fact. You know, maybe the little girl, Tammy, was right about her father. I know to be a real financial success, as Hayam surely was, it certainly takes an unusual personality."
"You have lost me," the father snaps in reply. "I don't understand."
"Well it seems Hayam may have made it part of his own personal policy to roam those dark hallways of that rambling antiquated mansion home in the dark of night. Maybe such business was his own method of checking up on things, and keeping abreast of occurrences there inside that large home. Only a person who strayed away from the ordinary, would deductively determine to handle personal business in such a fashion. Maybe he possessed a real reason for being so concerned, as to roam around during the darkest hours of nighttime."
"There you go with that again. I don't know what to think in regard to that matter, myself. I saw nothing inside the character of that man suggesting anything negative was amiss."
"I didn't mean to suggest anything bad by saying what I did," replies the mother with hard affirmation in her voice, as though her intentions were to quell any considerations in her husband, that she anticipated any level of possibility for the worst, while staying with the Solomon family.
"Yeah?, I clearly recall our discussion the other night during the midnight storm," the father returns. "I just don't know what to believe in all of that, myself, not at this point."
Nothing more is said in return to the final statement, but on the moment of his concluding remark, his mind drifts back to the gradual increase in his daily work load, the rather noticeably inflexible mannerisms Hyam began to assume, that were soon so different from his usual benevolent, welcoming demeanor. The way Hyam and his family worked Lindza gradually, and even little Lanker, simply could not be held into complete disregard. All of these honest recollections were tough to simply jettison aside, in lieu of Lindza's claims and specific expressive concerns.
Time passed feeling like an hour, where no person says anything again, then finally Hendrick speaks as the car crosses the State line. He draws in a deep breath..
"Maybe things really do work out for the best in the end. Maybe this move was what we all were in need of most. Living down here will certainly be a different lifestyle for us, that's for sure. It could be a fun lifestyle, with warm people who will take a person in, just like family. The only consideration giving me discomfort is that while we actually have some deeply reaching roots, going far backward into this place, none of the people there really know us. They may faintly recall our parents and grandparents, at least a few I should say, but never us specifically, I fear."
"Oh, they all know us," interjects the mother. "They have just never been around us much, but they know us, for sure."
"Well, they don't know me. I wasn't raised in this county we are moving to. My father was raised up there, but left when he was only 20. He bought his own land tract, doing his own thing, you know. He couldn't stay around there, Lindza. I honestly actually only know a few of those people."
"I feel like they know me," the mother replies. " It's just that my father kept me so tightly stored away behind lock and key, then we were married so young. I was only 17 years old at the time. We lived only a short distance away, yet our place was viewed as being a world unto itself by them. In a way, it really was, and still is," the mother tartly replies.
"Yeah, and that fact of being is the true source for problems I unfortunately anticipate, although I hope never materialize. We are the outsiders, in a place where outsiders are expected to remain behind closed doors, even if they live there for decades. There, no out-lander ever becomes an insider. I have heard of it all happening to others in the past. This place really is a vastly different world from that which surrounds it. It's like a time warp, taking us backward some three hundred years, if not more."
"Don't be so negative, Hendrick. Be open minded and give the place a try. We all may wind up being better off there than we could have ever dreamed possible," warmly smiles the mother.
The talk continues on for long hours. Lanker somehow falls asleep as the time drags onward. When he awakes, in the far distance the dismal darkness is transforming into gray, with streaks of gold beginning to show. On a distant horizon the edge of the sun is beginning to show. The mother takes in a long deep breath.
"You see, the feeling the light gives, peeking out at us from way up yonder, is that everything is going to be just fine. The old darkness is now behind us, and the new light lies just ahead of us. It is a very warm light, an all embracing light. Why carry the worries of yesterday into the new light of today? Keep an open mind to the good lying in the potential of our present day, and most assuredly, only the best is what we shall find!," announces the mother, with a sudden bright smile upon her face.
When Lanker glances up above the car doors, through the windows all that he can see are endless expanses of tall standing trees. When he picks his head up to gaze out the windshield, all that he can see are more trees that the car appears to be heading into. The car moves along smoothly, turns to the right, then bumps along, sometimes roughly, jolting Lanker in a manner causing him to fully awaken, sitting up tall in the rear seat.
"Did you feel us cross the second state line? You didn't hear us when we clapped? Once we crossed the second state line, I knew it wouldn't be much longer to drive now!," his mother asks and informs him.
"Where are we?," Lanker asks.
"On the road to grandmother's house," curtly informs his mother.
"Why is the car bumping along so much?"
"Because it's going down a dirt road," his mother replies.
"Why is it going down a dirt road?," Lanker replies directly.
"Because that is where grandmother lives!," says his mother, with fresh cheer found in her voice.
"How far down this dirt road must we go?"
"About a mile off the hard surfaced one," his mother continues.
The car begins to slow sharply while turning to the left. It moves ahead very slowly, then suddenly pauses. Some time passes as the mother gathers a series of bags and items from the foot of the car all around her, and from the back seat area where Lanker now sits.
"Well, we are here!," announces his mother, with a sudden excitement in her voice as she turns around, sitting up straight. "At long last we have finally made it to our new destination."
Lanker arises, being barely able to peer across the door and through the side window of the car. On the right side of what was a flower-filled yard nestled underneath oak and broad leafed hickory trees, sits a small, box shaped wood framed home, with a sharp A pitched roof. The shingles are made of wooden shanks. The brick is rather large, dull in color, and very thick in appearance. The back porch is open in the direction of the car, from where Lanker sits. He can see the chimney rising upward in the corner, disappearing into the ceiling, with the concrete caped porch being constructed around it in the left rear. The door to the home is on the wall, to the right hand side of the chimney. The general feeling emanating is one of a great welcoming, back home.
It is still rather early in the morning, so Hendrick slowly makes his way up the steps of the porch, toward the door. He knocks cautiously, three times. In a minute the door eases open, and out steps a well dressed, overweight lady, with a tall, muscular, very swarthy, sun-browned man standing by her side. The man smiles broadly, as though he would never stop. When his mother exits the car to stand beside his father, Lanker himself climbs out of the car, crawling over in their direction. The chunky woman opens both arms, smiling broadly, saying;
"Gracious mi, grannies! It is so nice to see all of you here again. Far as I am concerned, now you are home!"
The overweight lady waddles up and hugs the mother heartily, then warmly kisses her cheek.
"It certainly is good to see you again, Lindza. I am so glad you had a safe ride home, and that all went well," she says.
"It feels so good to be here, mother," Lanker's mom replies.
When the overweight woman releases his mother, the sun browned man hugs her heartily, saying;
"We certainly did miss you here, Lindza. It really does my heart well, just to see all of you at my doorstep today."
The overweight woman then hugs the father, saying;
"We are so glad everybody made the ride back here safely. None of them could have done it without you."
Upon her release, the sun browned man walks up, shaking the father's hand, then says;
"Glad everybody made it back safely, son, welcome home!"
The sun browned man then hugs Lanker's father heartily.
The overweight lady moves toward Lanker as he sits upon his knees. She makes a wrinkled face as she approaches.
"There he is. I haven't forgotten. I am coming to get you!"
She stoops down and pinches his cheek, grabbing his chin as she continues to glare down at him.
"He sure is the cutest little thing, to be sure! I can't get over it."
She glances back toward the mother, saying;
"How much longer must he wear those casts?"
"Another three weeks," replies his mother. "We must carry him all the way to Scuffle Town, into that big cathedral where that weird doctor lives and works, who they call the Woolly Bully."
"You don't mean that really rough man, with the long hair and beard, do you?," the grandmother asks. "I don't even see how a man who looks like he does, ever became a doctor in the first place."
"Yes, that is the one," replies the mother. "That hippie with the attitude, who, according to the talk, loves to fight. I don't particularly like him either, but supposedly, he is one of the best doctors who specializes in these types of problems Lanker has. He really knows what he is doing, they say."