Moving On

February 05, 2022

My Short Story : Moving On
By: LaTanya Hickson

There are two things that I don't like moving and packing up to move. I can tolerate the business company coming to assist me with the moving and completely doing everything. But I don't like to do everything on my own. My name is Chelia. I happen to live in Spring Valley, Ca. I live with my pet Goldy. Which is a Golden Retriever and still a puppy about 14 months. She's a really good dog. She is very active and loves to participate and play with other dogs, and everyone else. I have to move to a sunny community. I am just bogged down with all of these days of sickness and it rains too much in this neighborhood. I would like to see more sunshine and be able to walk around instead of having to drive a car all of the time. The amount of money that I spend paying for gas kills me. If I wasn't employed and working full time as a teacher I wouldn't know what to do. I just like to move to a nicer apartment without all of the noise and fuss. I'm not stuck up or bougie but peace and quiet means alot to me. New to the community I get noise ordinance and disturbances outside of my windows each night and I try to call the local sheriff's department but it seems like it's just a joke to them. Other people have no worries, this house is just too big for me. To actually not have a big luxurious front yard or backyard does me no good. But when my teenager started to have problems I knew that I couldn't stay here and had to decide to move elsewhere. This is a place where I thought was safe for her but she gets into all kinds of trouble in school, at church, and with others. Her name is Tres. She's not really an introvert like myself. She is always trying to bring something new into her life and is not even an adult yet. Her personality may disturb me at times but that is my daughter and she just has to make sure that we are on the same page to get along with one another. I try to help her and do almost whatever she asks me to except when she tries to bully me around like i'm her doormat. Tres grabs our dog Goldy by his head and kisses our dog. I remind her that we are definitely moving soon and she needs to go start packing up everything that she wants to keep. She growls like a dog and tells me everything is ready already. I said to her, "Tres I know that you want to just wait until the last minute but we aren't going to have time to come back and get anything if you forget something." She replied, " There really isn't anything that I have, there isn't much in my room." So I just went to the kitchen and didn't say another word. She likes to keep up conflict when I tell her that something needs to be done. But if she says it's finished I am supposed to go with it. Maybe I am being too hard or distant. I have to learn to be more empathetic to a teenager's feelings. Well all I do is put away the few glasses and pots and start putting them inside the living room. There are decorations that are still on the walls and I need help with those. "Tres, can you please come here and help pack up stuff in the living room?" I would really appreciate the help?", I said. She yelled, I will after I finish brushing my teeth mom, is what she replied from the bathroom. I went with that response and let it go. She walked out the bathroom and started taking the photo frames down off of the walls and asked me, "Where would these photos go? I told her, ``I set some boxes right by the couch and they can go inside there." That was great that she helped me, because I actually thought that I was going to have to do everything by myself. I did everything in the kitchen by the afternoon I was finished. This was good and we are going to travel in the U-Haul truck I rented by ourselves and I will be driving there in no time. We were moving all the way to North County and I didn't know anyone there and didn't have a clue how I was going to make my way. But my job transferred me there and so now we are going to have to make due with whatever we encounter. I didn't plan this but it seems the more I try to make life a little better for me and Tres it backfires. But this time it feels okay and the right time to move along. And she really doesn't want to start over or new at anything but I told her, "it will be for the better for her." And she just disagreed with me. I will not be talking for the rest of the day or night.















So the night continued on with me and Tres packing up our things in our living room and our apartment was beginning to look empty. I put some food in our dog's dish. And he happily came running over when he heard the bag pouring in. It was some really good healthy food for him. He was always happy and ate most of the bowl. I didn't have to feed him much. He drank some of his water then he ate some more. He came up to me and jumped to lick on my face. That means he was satisfied. I live in a busy city. Is what I thought but it was a lot of consumer products being delivered from the local businesses and they traveled a lot with new products like shampoos, and body washes, and household goods to sell to places like Target, Ikea, and other big department stores.There is another conflict we are going to have to worry about the shampoos have been going a lot faster than needed. Tres used half the bottles of them up and they had to last us a while. "Do you know how to conserve the shampoo by using a capful Tres?, I asked her." She said, " Yes mom I do but this shampoo smelled really good and made my hair feel softer." I know that but you really need to use less of it. I really can't afford to buy those products." Well if you like Pam's mom and asked around about where to buy the newest or lower prices products like at Sam's Club like her then you wouldn't have to worry about it so much, is what she told about her friend's mother." "I said, I really don't care what they purchase in their homes because they are not my concern, and you should be worried about what I am telling you so that you will have shampoo to use in your own home. Anyhow, we are both going to be sharing a bathroom. This place is an apartment but it has two bedrooms. So you will do nothing but behave, I had spoken firmly this time." " Don't get so beat up over things mom it's only shampoo she laughed at me."