Moving Shelly

Well, here it was. The day Shelly had been dreading for three weeks and two days. Moving day. So far, it had been as much of a nightmare as she had imagined. In was early on a Saturday morning. The entire Morgan family was outside in front of their house and were due to leave for the long trip any minute. They were watching the moving company workers, who were in the midst of putting all the Morgans’ furniture in their huge truck. It seemed that the truck was a “bottomless pit” of space, and the skilled movers were making use of every bit of it. The moving truck wasn’t the only thing packed to capacity, however. The Morgans’ minivan was as well. Although most of their clothes were in the moving truck, Shelly’s mom had instructed everyone to pack a few days’ worth of clothing since the truck wouldn’t arrive at their new house for several days. Incredibly, the men were going to pick up and drop off more furniture before they arrived in New Jersey. Aside from the suitcases, the girls had packed snacks and “activity bags,” as Shelly’s mom called them – bags with ipods, books, travel games and anything else to keep boredom from setting in on the two-day drive. There was not a lot of room to stretch out. And that was the least of Shelly’s problems. She had just said goodbye to Mark. Since he was leaving for a Midwestern university in a few days, it made no sense for him to make the drive to New Jersey with the rest of the family. He would be staying in the house until tomorrow, no doubt in a sleeping bag on the floor. This enabled the family to get on the road while Mark took care of miscellaneous “loose ends.” Among other things, he would give the house a good cleaning for the new people. The thought that her mother had insisted that their beloved house be spic and span for complete strangers moving in was more than Shelly could bear. However, she knew better than to say anything. With all his miscellaneous chores completed, Mark would head to college. Thus, they all had to say goodbye to him now. It was already arranged that he would be flying out to their new home at Thanksgiving, Mom had triumphantly announced to the girls a few days ago. “Thanksgiving -- a full three months away. It might as well be three years,” thought Shelly. Although Shelly had vowed to herself that she would be brave and grown-up as she said goodbye to Mark, she had burst into tears and cried like a baby for a long time. Even her mother didn’t seem to know what to do. Finally, she had calmly pulled Shelly away from Mark, walked her over to the van and told her to sit in her seat next to Sam. “Stay here,” she had said in a soft voice, “We’ll be ready in a minute.” Then she walked back to her husband and son. Shelly’s father was smiling and saying something to Mark – Shelly couldn’t hear what – and then they shook hands. Her mother was next. Since Shelly couldn’t hear what they were saying, she concentrated on her mom’s face. It was happy, then serious. Then Shelly could see the tears starting to come. Finally, her mother threw her arms around Mark and didn’t let him go for a long moment. Suddenly Shelly realized that as hard as this was for her, it was much, much more difficult for her mom. Even though Shelly still didn’t really understand why they had to make this crazy move, she knew at that moment that her mother was in a lot of pain.