Chapter 1
Sarah
“Mom, you don’t have to be sad, this is a good thing. You know that I have been trying to get back into the game. This job, I am telling you, it’s going to be the way through it all. I just have all this hope that it will be as good as I think it’s going to be. I want to believe it, anyway.”
Carolyn just shook her head, like she wasn’t going to argue with her daughter. Sarah had seen that look before. She knew that her parents thought that she was being ridiculous. She should stay there in Portland. Everything that Sarah needed was there and there was no sense in going so far away. It didn’t feel like that to Sarah, though. She knew that her parents wanted her settled and happy where she was, but Sarah still had a need for some adventure. She wasn’t getting it in her current life or out of her job, either. Sarah felt like she was stuck in a rut. She didn’t want to be. She wanted to try new things and hoped that her mom wouldn’t be offended. She sounded like she was.
“I just wish that you would stay here. We want you here, Sarah.”
“Mom, I am getting much too old to be staying in your basement. I have the education and the degree; I need to use it.”
Carolyn couldn’t argue with her daughter, not even if she tried. Sarah had been stubborn about going her own way for a long time. Nothing was going to change her mind once it was made up. Sarah had gotten the job, rented a place, and even found a roommate, all within the span of a couple of days. She was serious about it, and it showed.
“I know, dear. I just worry about you. If you are close to me, then if anything happened, you could just come to me and your father, and we would be able to help you.”
“Maybe I need some time without the safety net. I know that you will catch me, and I want to be able to stand on my own.”
Living there with her parents had been great for Sarah’s pocketbook. She was able to save so much money, and it was only because she was really ready to move on that she was ready to do so. It was an adventure, just what she needed.
“Oh, Sarah, you are going to do great. You’ve been standing on your own two feet for as long as I can remember. You have never needed us in the way that I had imagined. You were just so strong.”
Sarah wasn’t going to tear up. She kept telling herself that, over and over again, hoping that she would be able to stop herself from doing that very thing. It didn’t seem possible, but she was going to do her best. Her mom was tearing up so much that it was running down her cheeks on both sides, and Sarah had to look away so she wasn’t doing the same thing. She didn’t want them to start blubbering again. It was something that they had talked about several times and every time, it had ended in tears. It was so bad that Sarah wondered if she would be able to leave. She was the one that wanted to go, to have a new adventure, but leaving her loving parents was frightening to her.
She was packed and ready to go. The goodbye had turned into a last chance to get her to stay. Her mom was throwing everything at her, anger, guilt, logic, and now she was blubbering. Damn it, Sarah thought to herself. She wasn’t going to be able to go like that. She didn’t want it to leave such a bitter taste in her mouth.
“You know I am not going that far away, and I will be back every other week or so to see you.”
That was a big ask on her part to commute, but Sarah knew that there was no way she was going to be able to go anywhere if she didn’t agree to at least that much. Her mom took it as a negotiation, and Sarah had finally agreed to go every week or as close as she could possibly come to it. Sarah knew that it was going to be impossible, but there was no way that she was going to be able to refuse her then, not when she was acting the way that she was.
Sarah gave her mom a hug and she was ready to go. She was convinced that all she had to do was show up, and her creativity and talent would be worth it. Sarah was leaving a good job behind, one that her mother had brought up on several occasions. She knew that she was leaving a good job, with good pay, and bosses that took her ideas to heart and actually implemented them. They treated her well, and she had always felt like a valuable part of the system. What Sarah didn’t know was how the next job would treat her. She was under the impression that it would be more of the same.
“I just don’t want you to go.”
Now was the desperate last chance, and Sarah was finding it hard to turn away from her mom. The reason her and her mother were so close was because they knew each other so well. She was killing her mother, she knew that. It didn’t matter that she was only doing this to break free and start fresh. All that her mother saw was that she was leaving her behind and that was exactly how Sarah felt about it, too. It didn’t feel good, that was for sure.
“Mom, I promise that I will be not too far away. We will talk just as much.”
“But who will I watch all my old romance movies with?”
“You could try your husband.”
Carolyn waved her daughter off, telling her that he would just ruin it. Sarah found that funny and laughed about it, but she knew that it was a last-ditch attempt. She had to ignore it. She had to be strong. If her mom had it her way, Sarah would never move out. Sarah didn’t want that. She wanted adventure, and the only way that she was going to get it was for her to just get out there and take it.
Sarah left with tears in her eyes and a painful knot in her throat that refused to go down. Sarah tried her best to be strong, act like everything was okay, but it was easier said than done. She was going to miss her mom, just as much as she was going to be missed. Sarah was going to miss her dad as well, but since her mom was the one that she was closest to, she was the one that was harder to not be around.
For one reason or another, Sarah was convinced that the move was going to be the new start to her life. She needed a change, badly. Sarah wasn’t sure what was going to come of it, but she knew that it would be something different and that was literally all that mattered to her at the moment.
Chapter 2
Sarah
The job was just as good as Sarah knew it was going to be. The people were nice, and they liked the contributions that she was making. It was new and exciting, and Sarah felt like she was finally in her niche. It was hard to be upset about anything because it was all working out to plan, eerily so. Sarah wasn’t the type of person that waited for the sky to fall down or anything, but she did believe that sometimes, things that were too good to be true, were just too good for a reason. The reason was usually because she hadn’t seen it all just yet.
What Sarah hadn’t seen coming was that her mother was going to get sick or rather, really sick. She’d known that her mom was having trouble with her heart, and she had been put on tablets to make her feel better and get it into a rhythm. What she hadn’t known was what the doctors had really said. Her mother had a heart disease and cancer. They were both pretty bad. Carolyn was ignoring it, and she wasn’t taking care of herself properly. Mainly, she needed to stop working because of the stress.
There were also other stressors that involved the house they were in, the neighbors. It all came down to the idea that Sarah was going to have to help her mother. Instead of moving back home, where she would have a job and everything waiting for her, they were all going to move to Seattle. That was where Carolyn’s doctors were, so that was where they were going. Sarah wanted her to have the best care possible, so of course, she had to go with her to Seattle. She had to take care of her mother and put her life on hold. She loved her new job, but she loved her mother far more, so to her, it was really a no-brainer.
That meant that Sarah’s new adventure was over, at least for the time being. She wanted to believe that she would make it back to Rockets Incorporated. She was liked there and received well, but Sarah knew that she would be received the same way somewhere else. She’d had two decent jobs now to fall back on for experience. They had given her the confidence to leave her very good job again and put herself back into the fate of the market. Sarah just knew that she would find something. She always did. It was the right thing to do, even though it was rather hard.
