Putting Up Roots

CHAPTER ONE The apartment was deserted. Josh somehow knew it, the moment that he opened the door. The place also, in a way that he could not describe, felt strangelyempty. "Mom?" He did not really expect a reply. His mother was hardly ever home in the afternoon. So why did this feel different from any other day? He walked into the living room, and knew why. The rented couch was gone. So were the sideboard, and the computer and entertainment centers. The place was practically empty of furniture. He found the note on a solitary end table, in the tiny kitchen-dinette that formed one corner of the living room. My dearest Josh, This is the hardest letter I have ever had to write. By the time that you read it, I will be gone. I have known for a long time that this was no way to raise a child, dragging you from one city to another wherever my job took me. There was always the dream, you see, that the next part would be the big breakthrough. After that, you and I would have the absolute best of everything. Well, it is going to happensomeday. You know me, and I'll never stop trying. But that's not good enough for you. You need to put down some roots. In the envelope you will find an air ticket to Portland and plenty of money to take you the rest of the way to Burnt Willow Farm. Uncle Ryan and Aunt Maria can provide what I cannot, a solid, safe upbringing and schooling. Maybe you wish that your mother had been the steady one, with her life under total control. Sometimes I wish it, too. But Maria told me, whenever we used to call each other, that she wished she were like me and had a son of her own. It's been a long time since you last met themnearly eight years, I guess, when I had that summer rep job in Seattleand Maria and I have been badly out of touch for a while. But I know that you two will get on just fine. And Uncle Ryan, too. And you and Dawn will be really good company for each other. Don't worry about the things that are left in the apartment. Just take whatever you want. Someone will come in and handle the rest after you have gone. Love, Mother P.S. It's not forever, Josh, and I don't even think it will be for very long. I'm overdue for a change in luck. And my name in lights! All my love, Mother Josh felt that first pang of misery again, as the bus jolted and rumbled its way west. He had the letter sitting on his knee, but he didn't need to look at it. In the past four days he had read it a hundred times. He knew it by heart. "Just take whatever you want...." That was so typical of his mother. It made him want to laugh and cry at the same time. The apartment had been pretty much cleaned out of everything except his clothes and the kitchen table. No wonder it had seemed echoing and empty. "...an air ticket to Portland..." Sure. The ticket had been in the envelope, exactly as promised. But when he had taken it to the airport, he found that it was no good. It was for an excursion tour that had happened over a year before. As for "plenty of money to take you the rest of the way to Burnt Willow Farm," that might be true enoughif you first flew to Portland, and had to go only a couple of hundred kilometers east across Oregon. Starting from New York City and heading west was another matter. There had been enough money for the tripjust. You could do it, provided that you slept on buses the entire way, washed and changed clothes at rest stops, and ate the smallest and cheapest meals you could find. Josh leaned his head on the seat back. In four days and nights he had learned a lot about sleeping sitting upright. He couldn't wait to drop into a proper bed at Burnt Willow FaSheffield, Charles is the author of 'Putting Up Roots' with ISBN 9780765345691 and ISBN 0765345692.