“No! Mommy!” I cried out as I pressed my hands and face up against the closed window.
“Be good, Chloe! I’ll see you soon. I promise.”
As I struggled to breathe through my sobs, I wondered if she would keep that promise.
CHAPTER FIVE
Summer 1992
Seven Years Old
I woke up when the car finally pulled up to the driveway of Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom’s house. When I realized what had happened, I was immediately upset with myself. I had wanted to pay attention to the roads and try to remember how to get back to the apartment complex my mom and I lived in. I needed to know how to get home just in case my mom needed me.
“Aunt Betty?”
Aunt Betty had just unbuckled her seatbelt when she turned back to look at me. “Yes, honey? We’re here.” Being my mom’s older sister, she looked a lot older but had the same smile as my mom, which comforted me.
“Can you draw me a map to me and mommy’s apartment?”
She kept the smile on her face, but I could see a worried expression in her eyes. “Honey, your mommy’s not going to live there anymore, remember? She’s going to be living with other people who are also sick, and she’s going to stay there until she gets better.”
“Oh.” I did remember my mom telling me that, but I was hoping things had changed. “Can I call her?”
“Of course. Let’s first get settled in, and we’ll call her before dinner. Okay?”
I nodded. I really wanted to tell Aunt Betty that I wanted to talk to my mom now, but I knew I was supposed to listen and be good.
“Now, come on. Let’s see your new room,” she said with excitement. “We have a surprise for you.”
“Really?” I looked at Aunt Betty with a new sense of hope. A surprise? Maybe it’s Mommy! Maybe Mommy is playing a joke on me.
I grabbed Belle, who was sitting in the seat next to me, and got out of the car. It was sticky-hot outside but I felt a little happier to know there was a surprise in my room. I looked up at Aunt Betty and Uncle’s Tom’s house in awe. It was so much bigger than the apartment. They had three spaces for their cars in the garage, which was bigger than my entire apartment with my mom.
“How come you didn’t park your car in the garage, Uncle Tom?”
Uncle Tom chuckled. “You’re a very smart and observant kid, Chloe.”
“Mommy says I like to ask a lot of questions, and she says sometimes it’s rude to ask too many questions. I’m sorry if I was rude, Uncle Tom.”
“You weren’t being rude. Being curious is a good thing.” He reassured me with a smile. “And to answer your question, since Charlie is in college now, we moved his things to the garage for now, and his old room is your new room.”
“Oh.” I remembered Charlie. He was a lot older than me and I never really talked to him much. But he wasn’t mean to me, so I liked him. “Will Charlie be mad if I’m in his room when he comes home?”
“No,” Uncle Tom said with an understanding smile. “I mentioned it to him already. He’s going to stay in the guest room when he’s home from college. But because you’ll be staying here for a while, we wanted you to have the bigger room so you feel more comfortable.”
“Come on, Chloe,” called out Aunt Betty as she walked to the front door. “It’s really hot out. Let’s get inside. Uncle Tom will grab the rest of your things.”
“Okay, Aunt Betty.” I hugged Belle a little tighter and whispered, “We’re going to be living here for a little bit while Mommy gets better, Belle. Don’t be scared, okay? I’ll be here to protect you.” I kissed Belle on the forehead, the way my mom would kiss me when she wanted to make things better.
As I walked up the driveway, a boy popped his head out from the treehouse between Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom’s house and the even larger house next door. We stared at each other for a moment. I wanted to ask about his treehouse because I’d never seen one before in real life. But before I could ask, he yelled down, “You look like Pippi Longstocking!”
His words stung, and it made me mad. “I do not, you big meanie!” I screamed up at him.
“Pippi Longstocking!” He flashed me a boyish grin and he pointed to the pigtails my mom had braided for me that morning before we’d said goodbye.
“And you’re a big, fat meanie!” I screamed up at him again, but this time, I stuck my tongue out and made a face at him, too.
Then I turned away and ran into the house because I didn’t want the boy to see me upset.
“Did you make a new friend out there?” Uncle Tom said with a smile as he walked toward the staircase leading up to the second floor.
“No,” I immediately retorted and twisted my face in disgust. “He said I look like Pippi Longstocking.”
Aunt Betty laughed. “Sounds like someone has a crush on you, Chloe.”
“No. He’s mean.” I frowned and wondered if Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom had problems with their hearing. There was no way that boy liked me.
“Give the poor boy a chance,” Uncle Tom continued with a chuckle. “Sometimes boys just have a hard time expressing their feelings.”
He didn’t seem to have any problems expressing his feelings to me, I wanted to counter, but I remembered what my mom said and I knew that a good girl didn’t talk back to adults. So I kept my thoughts to myself as I walked up the stairs with Aunt Betty and her husband. But I knew they were wrong. That boy didn’t like me and I didn’t like the boy, either. He was mean. He was a bully. He would never be my friend.
Minutes later, all thoughts of that boy vanished, because when I walked into my new room, I saw the surprise Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom had for me.
My eyes grew wide with glee as I took the entire room in. “Is this really my room?” The room was almost as big as the whole apartment my mom and I had lived in. I couldn’t believe that such a large room was going to be just for me.
“Is that a dollhouse?” I squealed as I ran over to the corner of the room near the bay window where a large dollhouse stood. It was so tall that I had to get on my tippy toes to be able to touch the top of the roof with my hands.
“We heard that Belle was going to be living with us, too.” Aunt Betty walked over to me with a smile and helped me open the dollhouse so we could see the inside. “So we wanted to make sure that she felt at home as well.”
I gasped when I saw the inside. It wasn’t a dollhouse; it was a doll-mansion. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Aunt Betty! Belle’s never had such a big house to herself.” Then I cried out in delight and pointed at one of the rooms. “Look, Belle! There’s a library in your house! Look at all those books you can read.”
“So does that mean you like your room?” Aunt Betty’s eyes twinkled as she smiled at me.
I nodded excitedly. “Thank you, Aunt Betty! Thank you, Uncle Tom!”
Uncle Tom flashed me a huge smile. “I don’t think you’ve noticed the surprise.”
“What do you mean?” I stared at him in confusion. “Isn’t this room the surprise?”
Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom exchanged a look, like they knew a secret.
“Is Mommy here?” My eyes lit up in excitement as I looked around the room for places she could be hiding.
But then I noticed Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom exchange a look that made them seem worried. “Well …” Aunt Betty looked at me apologetically. “No, honey, your mommy isn’t here.” She then smiled, trying to convince me to do the same with her expectant eyes.
I felt downcast that my mom wasn’t with me. I also felt guilty that a part of me felt excited about living in this big room when I didn’t know where my mom would be living.
“The surprise is on the ceiling,” she finally told me.