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The ice in the cup was melting away, along with the miles. Momma turned around and smiled. “Just wait till we get there; we’ll sit under a big tree and drink from a brook nearby.’ We all smiled back at her, but no one replied. We had been travelling for three days, seven kids in the back of an old station wagon. I looked out the window, but I felt worse as I watched the heat waves smother the blacktop.
I remember about a year ago, when we moved out by Grandma’s house. Momma talked about all the things we could have in the city; it seemed like heaven. We even stayed at Grandma’s house for a while. The houses cost too much, so we moved into an apartment. The man didn’t like having all of us in there. He said it was okay because Momma cleaned up after people when they moved out. I waited for the day when we would move to our house, but I heard Momma crying one night. She said she had been laid off at the factory. I didn’t know what that meant, but something in her voice made me afraid.
Not more than a few weeks later, Momma started talking about going home. I knew we were going to move again, so I started saying goodbye to my friends right away. I’ve found out it’s easier that way, but it still hurts. I wondered where home would be this time, and Daddy said we were going Dixie. I couldn’t find it on the map, but Jerry said it was where Daddy had lived when he was a boy I thought it might be fun, but I’d been the new kid in school before. I know how kids laugh at my hand-me-down clothes I wondered how these kids would be.
Daddy seems happier not that we’re headed back home. He said the fresh air and sunshine would help his back. Daddy had an accident when I was a baby. He says he’ll get better one day and everything will be different. He even promised us a big garden and fruit trees. He could have us tasting the fruit just by talking about it. Daddy made Dixie seem like a place to stay forever, but I couldn’t believe there was such a place for us.
I just keep thinking about the other kids. Their Daddies go to work, and their Mommas stay home and bake cookies. I even met some kids who had lived in the same house forever. I saw a picture of the house we lived in when I was born, but we’ve lived in so many places since then.
It’s time for us to trade places now, so we all get turns by the window. I wonder what people would think if they had to take a turn and look out my window.
The house here is long and skinny, but it’s our house. We even have a front porch and clothes lines in the back. We barely got all the boxes out of the truck when the lady next door came over with her kids and some cookies.
The neighbor lady told Momma that she would take us all with her to Vacation Bible School. She told us that there would be games and crafts and songs. Right after dinner, we piled into her already crowded car and were off to school in the middle of summer break. Somehow, it didn’t seem fair.
It was a different kind of school, the windows were tall and had pictures made in the glass. The people were nice and they told good stories. After class, I asked the teacher about the mansions in Heaven she had talked about. She told me that Jesus went there to build one just for me. I told her I liked that story, and she said it was true. We had to go then. She told me that if I would come back tomorrow; she would tell me all about it.
I thought about it as I went to sleep that night. If Jesus was making big houses, and giving them away, maybe there was a place for us in Heaven. I would go back tomorrow and find out about it. I wasn’t sure where Heaven was, but I bet Momma and Daddy would want to know about it.
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