Road Trip

One day my grandma came to get me. I loved spending time with her. Everything with her was easy. And an adventure. She said we were taking a road trip. The back seat was going to be my kingdom. I had a pillow and an afghan she had crocheted in the back. There was a jar of peanut butter in the back window and Ritz crackers. I had little bottles of juice. There were cards, coloring books and crayons for entertainment. I knew we were about to have a good time. I smiled and climbed into my kingdom and off we went. It was snowing and I loved the snow. It danced on the windows of my Grandma's big old green car. The seats had plastic bubble stuff on them to protect the seats that were aged and stained brown from Grandma's cigarette smoke. I spread the blanket up and cocooned with my pillow while Grandma told me the story of the princess and the pea. I was a princess and that's why I could feel those bubbles. I pressed some of the bubbles in and watched them fill back up with air. I watched snow hit the back window and drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up I was hungry and started making peanut butter crackers with my little plastic butter knife. The peanut butter was soft from the heater and spread so easily across the crackers. I'd make grandma a cracker and pass it up to her listening for her thank you at every cracker. Then I'd spread gobs of peanut butter on another one and gobble it up. You would have thought I was eating caviar. The snow was coming down heavily and Grandma was driving very slowly down the interstate. She said we were going to stay in a hotel and it would be great fun! The roads were too bad to continue our trip. I happily took her hand and looked at my new found world as we checked into a super 8. I was sooooo excited. The hotel room was large and had two big beds in it. There was a bathroom and a desk. I explored everything in the room quickly and felt very grown up on my trip with Grandma. We ate across the street at a Shoney's and then came back to the room. Walking carefully across the ice, I asked Grandma where we were going. As we got into the room, Grandma looked tired as she smiled and answered me. Grandma never lied to me and that was very important between us. She explained that my other grandmother was trying to take me away from my mom so we we're leaving so I'd be safe. I could tell my grandma didn't like my dad's mom, but to her credit, she never said a bad word about them. We were leaving the state and going to Missouri where my mom's sister lived.

The next evening we arrived at my mom's sister's house. She had a son who was six months younger than me. We became fast friends and I slept in a fold out bed in his room that night. I was nervous because I didn't really know my Aunt or her family. As usual when I was uncomfortable, I stuck close to grandma's side until it was time to sleep. That night I dreamed I was in my kindergarden class and the classroom had a bathroom in it. All of the children were lined up to use the bathroom one at a time and would come out and wash their hands in the crafts sink and go back to their seat. Just my luck to be at the end of the line. I had to go really bad and couldn't hold it. When there were only about three kids left I dreamed I peed my pants. I was soooo humiliated. I woke up to discover I had peed in the bed. I never wet the bed and cold fear shot up my spine. I panicked and wondered what I was going to do. I laid in the pee until it turned cold and then I laid there some more. When my new friend/cousin woke up I shared my secret with him. He said it was no big deal and busted out of the bedroom door to announce my shame. My Aunt came into the room followed by my grandma. Grandma swooped me up and put me in the tub and put clean clothes on me while my Auntie changed the bed. I never smelled bleach. No one said anything. No one yelled. No one hit me. No one pulled my pants off. Okay, so what's going on here?