Strange And Unprepared

            The night was still and dark. All that was visible were the stars in the sky. These were some of the reasons Alyssa loved her family’s ranch in Tennessee: the cold nights and the familiar sound of crickets in the field. As much as she liked it here, she missed her old home in California, where she and her parents had lived for the past thirteen years, since the day she was born. They moved here a couple of months ago when her father lost his job as the head of a big dot-com corporation. Similarly to when they lived at home, Alyssa’s father only came home to eat and sleep. While he used to spend long days at work, going from meeting to meeting, these days he was hanging on by a thread, spending hours on end looking for a job. Alyssa had gotten used to barely seeing her father. She was usually asleep by the time her father got home, but on this night in Tennessee, she stood on the porch, looking out across the ranch towards the highway. She squinted her eyes, awaiting the headlights of her father’s pick-up truck.

            “Alyssa! It’s almost time for bed, honey.” Her mother, Judith, opened the brown screen door. “Come on, Alyssa.” She stepped out onto the porch. She was a tall and slender woman, with the bleach blonde hair that she passed along to Alyssa. She had light brown eyes and a pale white face with a couple faint freckles. Unlike her mother, Alyssa had blue eyes, which was one of the few things her and her father shared. Like her mother, Alyssa never caused trouble and mostly kept to herself, but that never stopped her from asking questions.

            “Mom, when is dad going to be home?”

            Her mom looked down at her and said, “I’m not sure. Hopefully soon.” She shrugged, used to the fact that her husband was never home before eight. With this, Alyssa walked over to the door and stepped inside. She was used to this as well, but it still bothered her that he was never home to eat the dinners she and her mother worked so hard to perfect.

            “I guess I’ll just go to sleep then.” Just as she said this, a car pulled into the driveway, and Alyssa saw her father get out of the driver’s side. He looked a little distracted, like something was bothering him. Alyssa recognized this expression. When she was younger and her father came home from a rough day at work, he would have this exact look upon his face. And the routine that followed was always the same. The silence came first, usually disrupted by her mother’s attempts to cheer him up. Then the screaming, the accusations, and the occasional curse word. She longed for the days when she was little and would have immediately turned around and ran down the stairs yelling “Daddy! Daddy!” She would have stayed up to have dessert with her father, but these days it was different. Alyssa knew it was better to just mind her own business, so she reluctantly climbed the stairs to her room. All she wanted to do was put her headphones in and escape from her so-called family.

            She crawled into bed and picked up her phone. She scrolled through her phonebook: Alex, Alice, Amber, Anna. She pushed the Call button with her thumb. The phone rang four times, and then went to voicemail “Hi you’ve reached Anna, please leave your name and number and I will get back to you.” Beep. Alyssa hung up. Even though Anna was her best friend back home, Alyssa knew that she had better things to do than listen to her pathetic problems with her new life in Tennessee. She picked up her iPod from her bedside table and put her headphones in. She shut her eyes, wishing to be a little girl again, and fell asleep to the sound of the familiar music of Copeland’s Beneath The Medicine Tree album.

            In the middle of the night, Alyssa woke up to someone leaning over her in her bed. “Alyssa,” her mother softly whispered. Alyssa pushed her mother away, pulling her comforter back over her eyes, wanting to go back to sleep.

            “Mom what do you want? It’s the middle of the night. Please just let me sleep.” She was annoyed that her mother would wake her up at such an odd hour.

            “Alyssa, please.” She could hear the eagerness in her mother’s voice. So even though it took her a lot of energy to do so, she opened her eyes and sat up.

            Her mom whispered, “Come with me.” Alyssa put on her slippers and followed her mother down the stairs and into the kitchen.

            Her mother stood on the opposite end of the counter while she reached for something in one of the maple wood cupboards in the kitchen. “First, we make the hot chocolate” she said while holding up the Ghiradelli cocoa powder they only used on special occasions. She stared at her mother with a look of aggravation.

            “Mom, you woke me up for hot chocolate? You can’t be serious.”

            Her mother didn’t respond, but instead just smiled at Alyssa and got three mugs out of the cupboard.

            “Mom, there’s only two of us…” She stared at her mother in confusion.  “And that’s dad’s favorite cup. He’ll kill us if we use it.” She wondered what was going on; her father was stubborn and would never waste what should be his time to sleep doing “girly things.” She sat on one of the stools in the kitchen, leaning her head in her hands on the countertop. Her mother still hadn’t responded to what she had said, but Alyssa shrugged it off and looked out the window. She was too tired to care.

            When she heard her father’s familiar husky voice say, “Is the hot chocolate ready?” Alyssa literally jumped out of her seat. She turned around to see him in his loungewear with his slippers looking at his blackberry. That’s a first, she thought to herself. She couldn’t recall the last time her father had stayed up and spent time with her and her mother.

            “Almost, dear. I’m just boiling the water right now.” Even though Alyssa lacked a strong relationship with her father, she knew her parents were once practically best friends. Besides the occasional fights, they still shared a strong bond. She sometimes asked her mother why Dad didn’t spend as much time with them as he used to, but the answer was always simply “work.”

            Alyssa’s father acknowledged Judith’s response and started walking towards Alyssa. He put his blackberry down on the counter and turned towards her, “Are you ready for this kiddo?” Kiddo. Really? It had been awhile since he had talked to her in this tone and even though it was unusual, it didn’t bother her. She was just happy he was using nicknames again.

            Alyssa looked back at him, “Ready for what?” Alyssa remembered her mother never told her quite what they were doing, just took out those three mugs and started making hot chocolate. She looked at her mother, then back at her father waiting for one of them to reply.

            Her father laughed. “Oh, you’ll see.” Alyssa was again confused. Hello what is going on here? She just wanted some answers. Her father then whispered something in Judith’s ear, and walked outside.

            “Mom, what is going on?” Judith could tell Alyssa was frustrated. So she finally gave in.

            “Well after you went upstairs your father and I got to talking…” Alyssa laughed to herself, not remembering the last time she had heard, or if she had ever heard, those words spoken from her mother’s mouth. “Your father and I came to agreement that we need to spend some more time together. We know that the move was hard on everyone, but especially on you. We know you’ve had some trouble adjusting to Tennessee, and we haven’t really been very helpful with that. With your father having trouble finding work, and me trying to take care of everything involving the house, we haven’t spent much time together and we want to change that” Alyssa didn’t even know how to respond. She was angry, thinking that her parents were doing this only to get the guilt off of their conscience. But she knew it wouldn’t do much good to argue with them, so she rolled her eyes and motioned her mother to continue. “Well I read in the paper this morning that there was going to be a meteor shower. And your father and I thought we could all watch it together.” Alyssa was surprised. She didn’t know exactly how she felt about this, but it was definitely unexpected.

            Her father interrupted her thoughts, “Judith! Alyssa! Come on or we’re going to miss it.” Judith handed Alyssa a mug full of steaming hot chocolate and encouraged her to follow her outside. Alyssa took a sip of her hot chocolate – ouch, it burnt her. She walked out on to the porch and sat down. Her father was looking up at the sky, waiting for something astonishing to pass by. Alyssa unenthusiastically sat next to her mother and father and looked up at the sky, waiting for this family “bonding” time to be over. Her father started saying some ridiculous statistical facts about stars and constellations. What a joke. She focused in on the stars. She knew her father was still talking, but she was no longer listening intently. Unlike in the city, in the country there were no lights to disturb the natural beauty of the earth. Alyssa glanced over at her father and mother staring up at the stars and decided to just stop thinking and enjoy this rare moment she was spending with her family. God, please tell me this isn’t a dream, was all Alyssa could think to herself. She lay back on the ground and just looked up at the millions of stars in the sky. They were the same stars she had seen earlier in the night, but they were somehow different now.