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Chapter 17: Moving Day
“Walker, are you sure you want to take the boys into that mess today?”
Walkers’ mother asked as the family was finishing up breakfast. “It
will be dangerous with all the movers there. It would be perfectly
all right for them to stay here with
me today.”
Two sets of eyes looked up from their scrambled eggs as Ike and Taylor watched their father artfully dodge his mothers question and demand.
“It’s our moving day, Mom. We’ve waited for this for a long
time, and the boys should be a part of it. Besides, Ike and Taylor
are old enough to help and they can unpack
their own things. The boys will be a big help today.” Walker
explained.
“It’s cold outside today, and they don’t even have proper winter coats yet!” Mrs Hanson complained. “The house will be cold and mark my words, these boys are going to come down sick.”
“Mom, the boys are perfectly healthy,” Walker exclaimed picking
up their plates off the table and making a motion that they knew meant
to get out of the room. Ike grabbed Zac’s arm and Taylor followed
as they went to get their jackets.
Now that moving day was finally here, their Grandmother didn’t want
them
to leave.
With the boys out of hearing range, Walker turned to his mother and spoke to her gently. “Mom, I know you’re going to miss us, but we’re only moving eighteen miles away.”
Walkers mother wiped the tears from her eyes and hugged her son. “I know, I’m just not ready for you to go away again!”
“Mom, we’re staying in Tulsa, not going to the ends of earth.” Walker exclaimed.
“No, you’ve already done that,” his mother retorted sharply. “Oh, all right, go. Enjoy your big moving day. But keep those kids out of the cold and I expect you right here at my dinner table come Sunday dinner.”
“Yes, Mom,” Walker exclaimed, giving his mother a quick hug.
Walker and his family escaped his mother clutches. It had been
a little nerve-racking, to borrow one of his mother’s favorite expressions,
having two families living under
one roof. But it was finally their moving day. The van
was packed with their clothing, the movers were scheduled to arrive in
a couple of hours with their furniture out of storage and they had plenty
of friends and relatives ready and willing to help them move. By
evening they would spend their first night in their new home.
Walker’s mother had been right about the weather. There was
a fall chill in the early October air and the sky was overcast, threatening
rain. They detoured their trip
enough to drop Jessica off at Diana’s sisters house. They
simply had too much work to get done to worry with a eighteen month old
baby.
As they pulled up into their new driveway there were several
cars already parked along in the grass and on the side street. They
waved and their friends came forward
to help them unload the van and the U-haul truck that was already
parked
in the driveway.
It was a chaotic day, with people bumping into each other and Walker and Diana trying to direct traffic and get the boxes and furniture items into the correct rooms.
Walker kept his volunteers pretty busy, and by mid-morning when the
moving van arrived they were ready for it. Having been through the
moving experience several times, he knew that volunteers had a tendency
to fade as the day progressed. By
mid-day, all the furniture was at least in the correct rooms and
they were down to two of his brothers an one of Diana’s sisters to complete
the rest of the job. They had good luck with the weather. The
rain held off all afternoon and they managed to get the moving van unloaded
before the skies opened up in a downpoor. Walker shut the door and
turned on the heat and told the rest of his family to just do the best
they could with the rest of the unpacking.
There was knock on the door and Walker opened it expecting a new neighbor but instead standing on his threshold was good friend.
“Jerry!” Walker exclaimed pulling the young man into his house with a hug.
Diana joined her husband in the hug and called the boys downstairs. Ike, Taylor and Zac attacked the young man with their enthusiastic greeting.
“I thought you might need some help, and I’ve brought some, if you don’t mind.” Jerry exclaimed with his friendly grin.
“We can use all the help we can get.” Walker exclaimed.
Jerry went to door and waved to someone in the car and a man and woman and two young pre-teen boys ran through the rain to the house.
Jerry made the introductions, introducing the Hanson family to his mother, Bev, her husband, John and his two younger brothers, Evan and Ryan, who were eleven and twelve.
“Jerry, come see our room,” Taylor exclaimed pulling on the young
mans arm. “Zac got a new bed. It’s called a trungle and it
goes under mine, and we’ll be able to stuff
him in there!’
“Taylor,” Diana admonished. “It’s a trundle bed and you will not be stuffing your brother under your bed.”
The adults laughed and Jerry shrugged and allowed himself to
be pulled upstairs. His two younger brothers followed him.
When they were out of sight, Bev turned to
Diana and Walker.
“I want to thank you for giving my son back to me.”
“We just talked to him,” Diana explained.
“I know what you said to him,” Bev replied. “He told
me everything you said to him. I’m just so glad that you got through
to him. He wouldn’t even talk to me
before and I was so worried about him.”
“Jerry’s a good kid,” Walker exclaimed. “He just needed a push in the right direction. I’m just glad he’s agreed to the college program.”
“I don’t think he’s missed a class since they started in August,”
John said. “He seems to be settling in real well and believe me its
a major bonus that he contacted his mother
again.”
“We love Jerry,” Diana said. “In fact, I think you could say that either he adopted us or we adopted him. I’m not exactly sure how that happened but we’re not complaining. He was a godsend when we were in Ecuador, he played with the boys and kept them busy when there really wasn’t anything to do.”
“Oh, I know about those camps!” Bev exclaimed. “And,
I know how much of mess there is to clean up after you get everything out
of storage. Now tell us what we can
do, we’re here and we’re willing to help.”
With three more sets of willing hands, the unpacking process
went smoothly. The boys were kept busy, flattening and stacking boxes
and carrying them outside and unpacking their own toys. Finally,
as the day came to an end, the relatives went
home. Bev, John, Jerry and their boys left with an open invitation
to visit again anytime they were in Tulsa. Diana’s sister dropped
Jessica off, took the tour of the new house and then finally they alone
in their house for the first time. Walker built a fire in the fireplace
and Diana popped a huge bowl of popcorn for them to eat. There wasn’t
enough furniture to fill up all the empty spaces in the house, but that
didn’t matter to them. Walker and Diana put very little value on
material items, it was more important to them that this was their home,
a place to continue raising their children and a place to keep them safe.
They didn’t even get an argument when they told the boys it was time
for bed. The boys were tired and willing. Ike took his old
place on the top bunk. Taylor got his on the lower bunk. Zac
didn’t want any part of the trundle bed. He cried and didn’t want
to give up his end of the lower bunk. So, finally they just shoved
the trundle under the bed and Zac jumped into his place at the end of the
bunk. They had plenty of time for him to get used to the idea of
sleeping on his own. Diana put Jessica in her own crib in her own
little room and finally it was peaceful.
Walker and Diana stood at the top of stairs and listened for a moment and then they turned to each other and smiled both feeling the same instant security that their home offered.
Suddenly, Walker grabbed Diana hand and pulled her down the steps, through the front hall and opened the front door.
“Walker what are you doing?” Diana gasped as he pulled her out into the cold rain.
Walker swept her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold and when Diana realized what he was doing she dissolved into laughter. He set his wife down inside the hallway and Diana turned to him and gave him a long, romantic kiss--the kind that married couples with small children often forgot about in the rush of their daily lives.
Walker hadn’t forgotten.