[375] Opening Page for a Memoir

Ice cold air whipped across my face, burning my cheeks, as I watched snow flakes dance across the ground. A giant Super K-Mart sign hummed in the background, illuminating the desolate parking lot we were stranded in. My mother stood next to me, her tall thin frame swallowed by an obnoxious bubble jacket, shivering from the wind. 

“He should’ve been here by now.” She whispered to herself as she pulled out a hand me down Nokia cellphone. ‘11:07’ flashed across the screen in big black pixelated numbers. We had already been out there for over 20 minutes freezing in the harsh elements without a way home. My mother fidgeted in place, growing increasingly nervous knowing that if the mysterious man she had been chatting with the past few weeks decided to back out last minute, we’d be stuck outside the shopping plaza until morning. 

This was all apart of her big spontaneous plan to

skip town, and start over. We’d already packed a small bag of clothing a piece leaving behind all of our furniture, my toys, and our dogs in the middle of the night careful not to wake anyone. She even left her Firebird parked in the driveway, which was on cinder blocks most of the time anyway. The neighbor was nice enough to drive us an hour away for $35 late that night, he had asked for more but it was all my mother had. 

   So here we were, a 21 year old without a dollar to her name clutching the hand of her 3 year old toddler, stranded in the dead of winter. This was the last most crucial part of her new beginning, and he was already late. 

Just then the headlights of a red Pontiac Sunfire pierced through the darkness at the end of the lot. My mother squinted, “Is…is that him?” The car slowly approached us, before the driver side window rolled down revealing a short olive skinned man I had never seen before. 

“Cassie is that you? You don’t look a day over 16.” The man took one last puff from his cigarette, throwing the butt out of the window. She scooped me up, and placed me in the back of the car, without a car seat.