Chapter Forty-Three

Taylor Hanson

I'm in a field. A field of tall grass. I'm sitting down in a field of tall grass. No, wait, I'm standing. If I'm standing, then why is the grass taller than I am?

Suddenly, I hear the sound of waves crashing up on shore. I sniff the air and smell the saltiness of a body of water nearby. I pause to listen again. I look around me, feeling mischeivous. When I see no one is near me, I begin to wander in the direction I believe the body of water is in.

Then, someone starts to call my name.

"Jordan! Jordan Whitney, you get back here!" she calls. She doesn't sound mad, but her voice is firm. I sense her coming toward me and I giggle and continue to go in the direction I had been heading in, only now I'm jogging.

I trip and fall over something and do not have enough time to pick myself up before she scoops me up and wraps me in her arms. She turns around in circles quickly. I giggle with her as I watch the sights of the place where I am blend together into one obscure picture.

Out of nowhere, I smell something along the lines of shampoo and peppermint, a familiar combination.

"May I?" asks a deep, gravelly, old-sounding voice.

We stop spinning and I am too dizzy to see whose arms I am being placed in but I am pleased all the same with the feeling of the man's calloused hands wrapping around me. I pull away enough so that we're nose to nose and I stare into his blue eyes intensely as if I'm searching for some buried treasure inside his brain. Their blueness strikes me as fascinating. Suddenly, he crosses his eyes and I begin to giggle again.

"Ah, Jordan," he says, shaking his head and smiling to himself.

I begin to squirm slightly. "Mommy," I say.

The man chuckles and turns me over to a woman with long, curly auburn hair. The same woman from before.

"I love you," she says. "I love you so much. Don't ever think otherwise, okay? The Hansons will love you, too. I want you to be good for them. They're good people."

Her words are lost on me, not all of the information processing in my young mind. All I know is that she sounds very sad.

"Don't look at me like that," she says, her voice wavering and tears gathering in her eyes, similar to those of the old man's who had crossed his eyes for me.

"They're here," a new voice says. I look toward the voice and see a youngish man, early twenties perhaps with longish brown hair and glasses gesturing toward an unfamiliar car which is pulling into the parking lot of the place we are at.

My mother sighs and lowers me to the ground. I reach up and grab her hand. she does not grab back.

"Hi," I hear her say somewhat coldy to someone else.

"Hello," says a new male voice. The other new person that I can see from my height as they come closer says nothing, just nods. I begin to wonder why everyone is so sad.

"This is Jordan," my mother says, gesturing toward me with her free hand.

The woman kneels in front of me.

"Hi, Jordan," she says. I stare into her eyes, blue like my mother's. I'm suddenly confused.

"Jordan, this is Diana and Walker," my mother says. "Say hello."

"Hello," I say shyly, trying to hide in back of my mother. The woman kneeling in front of me giggles softly at my shyness.

"You can visit...," the new man begins, but is cut off by my mother.

"I don't want any contact," she says.

"Oh," he says with bewilderment. "All right."

The woman in front of me starts making faces and tickles me. I become too distracted to listen to any of the other words that pass between my mother and the strange man. I eventually let go of my mother's hand.

"Wait until you meet Ike," the woman says. "And Zac, too. Zac's too little to play with yet, though. But you'll like Ike."

I have no idea what she's talking about and don't really care.

"I guess it's settled then," the strange man says uncertainly. "I suppose we should go now. Diana?"

"Right," seh says, straightening up with me in her arms. I struggle slightly but because I like this woman already, it is only half hearted. As she lifts me, I notice that I am facing the body of water that I had been looking for earlier and am entranced as it wraps me in its warm, inviting arms although I long to be back in the arms of my mother. The sound lulls me and before I know it, I can hardly keep my eyes open.

"Bye, honey," I hear my mother say and I feel the softest kiss I won't remember receiving later land on my cheek. "Be good."

Her words call my attention and I look up, suddenly alarmed. Good-bye? Wasn't that the opposite of hello? Didn't that mean someone was going away?

I start to cry as the woman starts to carry me away.

"Mommy!" I start to shout, reaching out one of my hands toward her. "Mommy!" I call desperately, but all she does is stand there and wave. The man with the brown hair and glasses wraps her in his arms and as I am set down into what I assume is a carseat, i can see her begin to shake with sobs. The older man puts his hand on her shoulder.

"Mommy!" I try again. "Mommy!" My voice seems to echo.

"Mommy!" I cried, sitting up straight with a suddeness that sent a pain shooting through my back that I hardly noticed.

"Yes?" she answered, looking up from a magazine she had balanced in her lap.

Uh-oh
Index
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Four