PRESENT TENSE
Chapter One Hundred Eighteen
June 8, 2009
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Rose pulled over to the side of the road,
waiting for Jack to catch up, as she saw the sign reading Welcome to
Chippewa Falls. They hadn’t yet decided whether they would stay in Chippewa
Falls or Eau Claire, or another nearby town.
Rose unbuckled Lizzy from her car seat and
got out of the hybrid, pointing out the sign to the little girl. Lizzy still
couldn’t read much, but she sensed her mother’s excitement.
"We’re almost there, Busy Lizzy! Pretty
soon we’ll set up camp and stay there for a while. No more getting into the car
in the morning and driving all day. You can play all day if you want."
Just then, Jack’s sedan appeared on the road.
He slowed down, pulling over behind the hybrid.
"How long have you been waiting?"
he asked, getting out and going to stand beside Rose and Lizzy. He grinned at
the sight of the Chippewa Falls sign.
"Not long. Just a few minutes."
Rose grabbed Lizzy’s hand as she moved toward the road. "Stay out of the
street, Lizzy. I don’t want you getting run over."
"Sorry. I got stuck behind a big rig.
You know how that goes."
"Yeah. I must say, though, that I’m
impossible to miss with this hybrid. How many people drive a car painted with
roses? I’m a moving landmark." She frowned. “If that makes any sense.”
Jack laughed. "Where do you want to go?
Do you want to stay here in Chippewa Falls, or go over to Eau Claire?"
She shrugged. "I really don’t know. I’ve
only been here once, and we stayed in a motel that time. You’re the one who’s
from around here."
"Then I’d like to try Chippewa Falls
first, see if there’s a place where we can camp. After all, your job is going
to be here, and this is my old home. I know my way around pretty well—even if
it has been about thirteen years since I’ve lived here. Things can’t have changed
that much."
Rose nodded. "It shouldn’t be too hard
to find a place to camp. It is a Monday, after all. Most people will be at work
or at school, I assume—even in June."
"We’ll look for a place to stay around
here, then."
"You lead the way. I don’t where
anything is here."
*****
It was just past six o’clock in the afternoon
when the Dawsons found a place to set up their long-term camp—their home until
there was enough money to pay rent. The campground charged them for space, too,
but it was considerably less than what it would have cost to stay in a motel,
and they had enough money to keep them there until Rose received her first
paycheck.
Lizzy ran about merrily, delighted to
discover that the family camping two spaces down had several children, including
a pair of twin girls just a few months younger than her. Jack and Rose shook
their heads, smiling, as Lizzy excitedly told them about the
"jackalope" she had seen.
Their second day on the road, as they were
driving through Utah, they had stopped for lunch in an open area with just a
few scattered trees. Lizzy, bored with sitting in the hybrid all day, had run
around the area, exploring. Her parents had been alerted by her squeals of
delight as she looked at a pile of dead wood and brush stacked against a barbed
wire fence.
Lizzy had insisted that she had seen a
jackalope, pointing to the spot where it had been—a spot low to the ground with
two twisted pieces of wood that did indeed resemble antlers. She had told them
that there had been a jackalope there just a minute before, and that it had
hopped off and left its antlers there. Her parents had smiled indulgently,
knowing that what she had seen was actually a rabbit sitting under the pieces
of wood, but when she had begged to have one of the "antlers" for a
souvenir, they had allowed it—the pile had obviously been there for a long
time, undisturbed, and no one was likely to object to a piece of wood being
taken.
Lizzy was very proud of her find, and eagerly
showed it to the other kids. The older ones scoffed, telling her that it was
just a piece of wood, but the twins were impressed, which was enough for Lizzy.
She had almost forgotten that she had wanted to stay in California, with all
the new adventures facing her.
She returned reluctantly when her parents
called her home for dinner. The campsite didn’t look much like home to her—it
was just another place to camp—but they had assured her that it would be their
home for a few weeks, and maybe longer—and that it was part of the adventure
they had promised.
As far as Jack and Rose were concerned, home
was wherever they settled, so long as their family was together, and if it
consisted of a tent for a few weeks, that was just the way life was, and there
was nothing wrong with it.
They’d lived in many places now, and wherever
they were together had become home to them.