When the Enemy is Your Friend - Chapter Three

Chapter 3 – Back Home

While all of Alyson’s classmates were buzzing with excitement over Christmas vacation, Alyson was depressed at the thought of going home. She packed her suitcase carefully, taking only her most conservative skirts and shirts. When she put her pair of “sensible” black shoes that had served her faithfully for most of high school into the suitcase, she grimaced.  What had her feet ever done to her to deserve those?

When her parents came to pick her up, the ride home was rather silent, except for a few polite questions from her mother. Alyson noticed she was sporting a new hair-dye job and was almost positive it was not a purchase her father had approved. She was somewhat relieved when her parents were content to talk about the progress they had made on fixing the stairs leading up to their trailer home and how exciting the church Christmas program was going to be this year.

“Oh, your friend Abigail from church says hi! She asked about you all the time you were gone,” Alyson’s mother said cheerfully, tossing her new dark brown hair.

Alyson had forgotten about Abigail and was cheered up considerably at the thought of seeing her high school chum again. Snow was covering her driveway and the minute the car pulled into it, a little boy and girl came careening out of the trailer home, door slamming shut behind him.

“Allie!” Ben screamed, running to hug her and take one of her bags from her.

“Aunt Alyson,” cried Faith wish an irresistible laugh.

“Can I help you?” Ben asked excitedly. “Can I take this bag in?”

“There’ll be plenty more of those when you’re done with that one,” his father said, laughing at Ben’s enthusiasm.

“Just wait till you see the tree,” Ben said, grabbing Alyson’s hand boyishly. “It’s huge!!”

Alyson agreed when she climbed the stairs and saw the 5-foot evergreen sitting in corner by the entrance. It’s tip almost reached the top of the window.

“Do you like the new stairs?” her mother asked anxiously as she followed Alyson into the home.

“Yeah, I do. Great job, Dad,” Alyson said, feeling disoriented to be back home. Nothing had changed. Well, not really. Ben seemed a little taller, but that was it.

“You’re probably tired,” her mom said, “Go wash your hands and we’ll eat supper. Oh, I’m so glad to see you home safe and sound where I can keep a good eye on you! I think I’ll sleep tonight!”

Supper that night was fancier than usual. The potatoes were peeled and Alyson’s mom had tried a new recipe with corn. Her father had grilled some chicken on their neighbor’s grill and smothered it in barbeque sauce. It wasn’t a feast, but Alyson was touched because she knew her family had gone to extra lengths to welcome her back home. She felt happier than she had before she went to college. Now she had the best of both worlds. She felt fairly confident when she was at college and felt loved when she went home. What could go wrong?

Alyson cherished that night and thought back on it often during Christmas break as her time at home bothered her more and more. She didn’t know why, but she was growing increasingly discontent with being home. As eager as she had been to be done with school, she was eager to be out of the house again. There was nothing big that made her want to leave home; just little things.

She was uncomfortable with how her parents seemed obviously happy that she hadn’t changed at all. And when she wanted companionship to discuss her frustrations, Alyson now found her high school friend Abigail to be annoying. Abigail was 17 and too meek to try to change or go away to college.      She walked around with a defeatist attitude, her shoulders constantly slumped, and her clothes unkempt and dirty-looking. Abigail hinted that she wanted to change, but she insisted it probably wasn’t what God wanted. How did she know what God wanted? She was exactly what Alyson’s parents would want her to be, and that made Alyson dislike her even more.

Ben clung to Alyson over the break, and as much as Alyson loved her little brother, she wanted a little space from him to breathe. There was so much she couldn’t tell him. She wished she could make his future college-experience better than hers, but she wisely knew he would not care to hear what was coming. He’d have to just discover life for himself, she guessed.

Another thing that bothered her was that it was amazing how poor Alyson’s family seemed to her now. Before they seemed to be just average, but after living with Becky who threw away shirts when the buttons popped off, Alyson knew her family was very poor.

“Have you grown out of this skirt? I could hem it and give it to Julia’s girl. She’d fit into it by now. Her oldest girl might have some clothes for you in return,” her mother said, going through Alyson’s closet one afternoon. Alyson didn’t want Julia’s oldest sister’s cast-off clothes, but she simply said, “Okay.”

Despite the bad times at home, there were some good memories that she would look back on later. She loved the nights her family played Monopoly when Ben’s lame attempts at cheating made her laugh so hard she could barely stop. And church wasn’t that bad. Little old Mrs. Westbrenner at church would press a $20 in her hands from time to time and take the time to ask her how college was really going. She was a woman that Alyson respected deeply, mainly because Alyson believed she had finally found a Christian who lived out what she believed. Or it could have been the $20 cash that made her like her—she wasn’t sure.

Still, when the spring semester was finally ready to begin, Alyson could not say goodbye to her parents fast enough.

“Wait, don’t you want us to come in with you and help you get settled?” her mother asked.

“No, thanks, Mom,” Alyson said, feeling a small shoot of terror snake down her spine at the thought of bringing her mother into her college dorm. She pictured her mother trying to pull off that French coat on top of her conservative drab dress, and the thought was too embarrassing for words. She didn’t want to put her mother through the humiliation, she thought selflessly.

“Have a great trip!” Alyson said encouragingly, thumping the hood of the car in goodbye.

When her parents’ economy car finally pulled out of the parking lot at U of W, Alyson breathed a great sigh of relief. Now her life could begin again.

Little did she know that her life was going to change completely in just 3 short weeks.