When her mum turned onto the asphalt road and their trailer disappeared from view, Hannah turned in her seat and stared out the windscreen blankly. Softly she asked, "We are stopping at the cemetery?"
"What for?"
"To say goodbye."
"Oh, Hannah. Can't we just move on with the rest of our lives? Let's start this trip on a happy note."
Hannah pleaded desperately, "Please. I have to say goodbye."
Her mum sighed long and exaggerated. "I am not going in with you, and you better be quick about it. I will only wait five minutes and then I will leave without you."
When they stopped in front of the cemetery, Hannah turned to her mum. "Are you sure you don't want to come in with me?"
She shook her head. "Five minutes."
Hannah jumped out of the car and ran up the pathway past all the other graves until she reached her dad. She knelt down in front of the gravestone and pressed her cheek against the cold stone. "We are leaving. Mum wants to leave and I know you will tell me I must go with her, but I cannot help the way I feel. I really think we should rather stay here."
In the distance, Hannah heard her mum honking the car horn.
Hannah stood up slowly and leant forward to touch her lips to the tombstone. Her tears dropped onto the brittle, cold stone and were sucked into it.
She turned and ran back to the car. Wordlessly she climbed back into the front passenger seat and then her mum pulled away from the cemetery.
When they drove out of the only town Hannah had ever lived in, her mum let go of a long, heavy sigh. "At last, I am free."
Hannah wondered silently what she meant with those words.
As the tyres on the car rolled them further and further into their new future, her mum turned on the car stereo and started singing to the songs on the radio. With a happy glint in her eye, she glanced at Hannah. "Be happy, if not for yourself, then for me."
"I'll try," Hannah said in a voice barely above a whisper.
The scenery whisked past, mile after fleeting mile.
With frightened trepidation, Hannah felt herself being shoved forcefully into her future and into the unknown.
I hear the front door open, and I look up from the screen in front of me in shock when I hear my mum's voice calling, "Caitlyn?"
" Coming," I call as I jump up from my bed and pull my comforter neatly across the bed, making Salem open his one eye to look at me unappreciative. I cannot believe how quickly the day flew past.