Until We Meet Again

The alarm startles me awake. I roll over and slap the top of it to shut it off. Then I look at the clock and realize that I am running 20 minutes late already. Before I get up I look at the picture that sits on my nightstand right next to my alarm clock; it’s of my parents and this picture holds a memory that will never be the same again. It is a family picture that was taken just one month before my parents died. We looked so happy together; just a family of three but it was perfect. I sit there for a minute and mourn at the sight of the picture that over the years has collected a fair amount of dust from just sitting there, untouched. I snap out of it and rush to get ready.

Before I leave I wake my three kids up for school because the nanny doesn’t like to do it herself. I kiss them goodbye and I make them say I love you before I leave. It is a necessary thing to do and I learned that the hard way as a teenager. I hurry out the door and make the long trip to my work.
I walk in the doors and Amber, my b**** of a boss, just glares at me. “Victoria, you are late. Again.”
Work isn’t much fun when all you do is sit behind a desk and do your accounting and have your boss constantly breathing down your neck. Although I don’t need the job because I have enough money already from my parent’s wealth that was passed down to me, I still continue to work.

“Victoria, quit the daydreaming at get back to work!” Amber’s voice pierces my ears. I want to say so many bad things to her, but I restrain myself. My mom had always told me if I didn’t have anything nice to say, that I shouldn’t say anything at all. I still live by these words to this day.
I force myself to make it through another day of hell at my job. I just think that as soon as I am done with work I can go home and see my three kids, which are the loves of my life. On my way home I realize what the date it, it’s the day my parents died 14 years later. Right then and there I turn the car around and head straight to the graveyard where my parents are buried to pay them a visit. I make the walk to my parents’ grave; the salty tears already burning my eyes. I stare at the grave for about 10 minutes and that’s when I realize that the one thing I really want in life is to meet my parents again and say goodbye the proper way like it should have been done 14 years ago.
When my parents died I was only 16 years old. That night is still clear in my mind. I remember my parents telling me they were going to go on a date that night. They had pissed me off because they told me I had to clean while they were out. Of course I didn’t want to and then I got mad at them and didn’t even say I love you or goodbye.
Around midnight I started to get worried when they didn’t call. They weren’t the type of people that would stay out extremely late at night. I hear a knock on the door and immediately I was relieved… until I opened the door and a police officer was standing there. My heart suddenly sank. I knew something bad had happened, why else would there be an officer standing at my door.
“Hello there,” his voice trembled as he tried speaking, “Are you Victoria?”
“Yes that is me. Why are you here?” I asked not sure if I wanted to know the reason why.
He then asked me who my parents so I told him. Then he asked if he can come in and sit down, so I open the door wide and let him come in. He sits on the couch and awkwardly sits there silently for a while. He looks up from staring at his shoes and the worst words come out of his mouth. The officer then explains to me that there had been an accident and my parents were involved in it. A drunk driver had swerved into oncoming traffic and had hit my parent’s car head on. It had been a fatal car crash and the officer told me both my parents were pronounced dead at the scene and the drunk driver was in serious condition in the hospital.
I instantly fell to the floor and soon there was a dark wet spot in the carpet from my tears that were pouring out of my eyes. I thought to myself, where do I go now? Why do bad things happen to good people? Who am I going to live with now? I asked the officer what the plan was with me and my living situation; he then told me that I would live with my one of my relatives. The only problem is the only relative I had was my aunt and no one had spoken with her in over 10 years.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about this situation but I decided that I didn’t have a choice and that I was going to have to meet my aunt for the first time in the last 10 years. I would also have to live with her for a least the next two years of my life and then I could go off to college and get my degree.
That is my one regret in life is not saying the last goodbye. I sit there for another half an hour just talking to the headstone, saying everything that I would want to say to my parent if they were still alive today. I look at my watch and recognize that it is getting late and that I should head home so my children and nanny don’t worry about me.
On the way home I just think about how my parents were my role models. I have always wanted a love like theirs; they were married 20 years and still going strong. Unlike their relationship, my relationship went bad 5 years ago. I caught my husband cheating on me with some younger girl. I instantly filed for a divorce and won all custody of our children. My husband was lazy and didn’t work; he lived off of my wealth and the large amount of money I received from my parents will when they passed. Now I believe that he lives in some crappy trailer home and the girl left him only 2 months after our divorce.
What makes me the sad is that I can’t move on like he did. I loved him and we had been together since we were 15 years old. He helped me get through the whole incident with my parents and was there for me when no one else was. I have been searching for someone else to fill all of the cracks in my heart that have been accumulating over the years. So far I have had no luck, but I’m not going to rush into anything. Right now my only worry is to be the best mom I can be and to live every day to its fullest.
I get home and Peyton, Jackson and Devin all come running to my arms as soon as the door opens. They immediately make my day ten times better. I tell the nanny she can have the rest of the night off because I don’t want any interruptions. I just want it to be me and my kids tonight. Tonight is game night so we all sit down and play some old board games. I love night like these, spending time just playing with my children. Nights like these are my favorite and I just wish I could have had some like these when I was younger. As I’m looking at my beautiful children, I think of how proud my parents would be and what a shame it is that they didn’t get to meet their only grandchildren.
Then it occurs to me, my parents are proud of me and they are watching me from Heaven and are proud of what I’m doing and how I am living my life. I know this is what they wanted for me and how everything was supposed to turn out. I walk into my bedroom and look at the old photograph of the old family picture for the last time. I wipe the dust off and walk to my closet and reach to the very top shelf where there is a box just sitting there. I take the picture and put it in the box and tuck the box back on the shelf where it belongs.
I am like a turtle, although my parents left me I learn to grow up on my own and live a good life. I am a strong mother and today is the day that I am at peace with my parents and they would want me to be happy. I walk back to my nightstand and look at the empty spot where the picture was. Then it occurs to me that I should have a family picture taken with my children and I. That picture will replace the sad picture that used to be there. Today is the day that I move on and be happy again.