The Plan

 

David-Peggy-Alan-Susan-Gary-Nancy...

When we were kids, my dad would take us on many family road trips. Some were very special and fun, while others were kind of creepy. The trip to Springfield, Illinois was a combination of both. The motel where my dad squeezed all of us into just two rooms was fun. But only because of the swimming pool. I remember that I had to sleep on two of those luggage racks pushed together at night. The lake trips were always fun. Either when we stayed in a cottage on a small lake, or when we would go to Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan. I loved the water. Just the ride in the car through strange towns and countryside was fun. Sometimes Dad would lose his temper and start cursing and telling us that he would stop the car and smack us. I don't remember him ever actually stopping the car. He usually swung blindly over the back of the front seat while we scattered to the farthest reaches of the car. One day trip Dad took us on was to a place called Mooseheart. All I remember is that there were buildings, it was on a hill overlooking a river, and that if Mom and Dad died that is where we would be living. 'What, Mom and Dad might die?' It freaked me out and I couldn't stop thinking about that. Also that I would have to be living with a bunch of orphan kids who I did not know. For a few years afterwards the thought would pop into my head that if anything ever happened, I'd be living at Mooseheart. I didn't want to live at Mooseheart. Didn't we have grandparents? Wouldn't they just love to have a bunch of kids living with them? After awhile, when I reached my teen years, I stopped worrying about living in an orphanage. I was a teenager and I knew how to take care of myself. I could live on my own. In my head I had it all planned out. Mom and Dad would be dead, but I'd be living in the house we always lived in. I'd have a job at the Jewel store, and at sixteen I'd buy a car. Oh, and my brothers and sisters would all be living at Mooseheart. I didn't say it was a good plan, or even fair. Just a plan.