LIVING BY EMOTION OR LOGIC...DECISIONS BEYOND MY CONTROL

“Don, I’m going to sell the house and move to Socorro,” Mom announced to her older brother.  A little over a month had passed since Dad’s funeral.

“Now wait Wanda,” Uncle Don protested, “You should give this more thought.”

“The house is full of memories, and I can’t stand it! We have relatives in Socorro and a change might help.”

“You need more time before you make a decision,” her brother replied with a frown, “You might decide from emotion rather than logic.”

“I don’t have a lot of time,” Mom said, “School begins in less then a month, and we need to be settled by then.”

“If you decide to move to Socorro, don’t sell the house: rent it out,” Uncle Don advised.

The moving men carried our furniture and boxes into the duplex.  I stood on the screened in porch and stared across the street at the one level grade school.  Life had played a trick on me.  I would be starting school in Socorro instead of Magdalena or Albuquerque.

Butterflies whirled in my stomach at the thought of school.  Mr Douglas was the fifth grade teacher and he was a shirttail relative.  Mom said this would be to my advantage, but in my imagination I could see a host of mean fifth graders pointing their fingers and chanting, “Teachers pet.”

        Every time we went to Magdalena we had passed through Socorro.  Dad’s sister Florence and her husband Eldon had lived here for years, and we have visited them often.  But, I had never expected to live in Socorro.

          I left the porch, dodging the couch propelled through the air by two pairs of legs, and explored the fenced in yard.  Mom had chosen the duplex because it was close to school.  She said I would be able to come home for lunch every day. 
         With another thought of school I felt like running from the future.  But, where would I go?  Back to the house on Childers Drive?  Back to Philipsburg?  I had the feeling I wanted to go home.  But where was home?  No place was home with out Dad.  He had been the one stabilizing force in our lives.  Without him, we were like sifting sand, unsettled and without foundation.