We pull up to my mom and dad’s place; they live out in the country, surrounded by a golf course. There are a few acres of land between each home on their street. My younger sister and brother, Samantha, and Brandon both still live at home. Brandon is twenty-three, and Samantha, as you already know has just turned eighteen. As Kyle is parking the car, I see Brandon and Samantha’s boyfriend, Phil on the back of Brandon’s four-wheeler; they are tearing up the yard and having the time of their lives. Kyle parks and we both get out and watch.
My brother drives up and parks. In a teasing voice I say, “Brandon! What? No helmets? Geez you are bad!”
Brandon smiles and quickly makes a smart-ass comment, “Robin it’s like this, I don’t have a second helmet for Phil to use, so I figured if he doesn’t have a helmet than I wouldn’t wear mine, and if something happens, than I have done a noble thing and not put myself first.”
I role my eyes, “Brad, that makes no sense” I giggle, he is ridiculous, “Anyway…So where is Samantha?”
Brandon shrugs his shoulders and says, “Not sure, in the house maybe?”
Suddenly, I hear the creak of the front door open and turn to see, “Hey there she is!” I holler.
Samantha must have heard the four-wheeler shut off, and now the boys are all talking about guy stuff around the machine. Samantha comes out onto the driveway to meet me.
I walk over and say, “Happy Birthday Sam.” I give her a big hug; I must reach up; she is a little taller than I am.
She answers, “Hey Robin, thank you.”
I hand Sam the heart shaped tin, “Here you go.”
She opens the tin carefully and picks up the necklace, “Ah Robin it’s so pretty and heavy!” She smiles as she examines the necklace.
I stop holding my breath and blurt out, “I am glad you like it because I made it.” I beam and can’t help feeling proud of my crafted creation.
“Ah thanks Robin, I love it!” Phew! She really likes it! I can tell by the expression on her face! Yes, my subconscious is jumping for joy, and I give myself an imaginary pat on the back. I feel that in general, I am not an incredibly good gift giver and often find myself giving others money, or gift cards. I know that money and gift cards are great gifts, but I feel that if you give the same thing repeatedly, I think that the receiver may think that you didn’t put any thought into them. For me it feels good to think of something original and try to be as authentic as possible, and when the receiver genuinely loves the gift, it really feels good to know that you did well in thinking of something nice for them.
Samantha puts the necklace on and says, “Robin, let’s go inside, Mom is just setting up the dinner table and Dad is on his way home with pizza.” Sam and I go inside while Brandon, Phil and Kyle continue to chat around the dirty four-wheeler.
My parents have a beautiful home and property. It is a bungalow and there are many mature trees in the yard, and off to the north side of the lot is a creek that runs through and divides their property from the neighbors. The backyard backs onto a forest, which is perfect for Brandon’s four-wheeling hobby. Across the street is one other home, and off to the left of it, you can catch a glimpse of the eighteenth fairway to the golf course. My parent’s home is a little run down inside. The house shows the signs of raising a family with some wear and tear on the walls and carpets. Their furniture shows signs of being well used and it is a bit dated. I would say late 1980s early 1990s. With my brother and sister pretty much all grown up and almost out of the home, my parents have only recently started upgrading and replacing things. Recently, a few of the rooms were painted and they have just replaced all the kitchen appliances with stainless steel ones. Slowly it will all be replaced.
Samantha and I find Mom in the kitchen, and I walk in to greet her, “Hey Mom!”
Mom sets down some plates and says, “Oh hey Robin, I didn’t see you come into the driveway! How are you?”
I smile, “I am good, you?”
She smiles, “I am doing well. Could you take these forks and knives, and place them? Oh, yah and Robin, I have some wine here, do you want a glass?”
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The thought of wine at this time, makes me shudder because I am already a bit tired from having worked a full day at the office, a glass would put me to sleep for the night, “No thanks, not tonight, I will just have a diet soda.”
Mom looks a bit disappointed. She enjoys sharing a glass of wine with others. “Okay Robin, help yourself there is a case in the basement fridge.” She smiles but showing glimmer of disappointment in her eyes that I won’t join her for a glass of red.
“Thanks Mom.” I shrug at her and give her the, “I am too tired for wine right now” look.
My mom is a quiet type. My entire life, she has been dedicated to her kids, but not in the overbearing Mom way that some moms portray. She is not like that. Her style has been more of a “Plant a seed in your mind” and let you decide on what is best, she kind of makes her children think that they have made a decision to do the right thing on their own when really she gave small pushes along the way. She got mad when she needed to, but overall, she was more of a negotiating type of Mom. My Dad on the other hand was and still is a prankster. He is the exact opposite of my mom. He is an extremely outgoing and outspoken person. Now that I think about it, how does that go? Opposites attract, well that is my mom and dad, and that is likely why they have a successful marriage. I am the oldest of their three children. My little brother, Brandon, is a mix of my mom and dad in terms of personality. Like my mom, he is a listener and observer; he always strives to do what is best, but when he wants to have fun that is when my dad’s personality comes out of him. I guess like any twenty three-year old, he loves to party and socialize. He is the one that will quickly become the life of a party. People are naturally drawn to him because he is so likeable. My little sister Samantha, I have always known her to be silly. She likes to kid and joke, especially with me, and now that she is older, we have conversations that are more meaningful. We talk to each other just like she is one of my old high school girlfriends. Sam is smart, an honor roll student, she graduates from High school this June and has already been accepted to University for Nursing.
The Boys have just come in which means Dad is back with the pizza. I am coming up the stairs from the basement with my diet soda. Dad opens the door holding two boxes of Pizza. It smells oh so delicious!
“Robin, take these to Mom, would you?” He hands over the pizza.
“Sure” I take the food to the dining room where Mom is.
Everyone sits down together for dinner at the dining room table, and we all feast on awesome, cheesy, pepperoni and bacon pizza and a vegetarian pizza. Oh yes and don’t forget the healthy stuff, a Caesar salad as a side dish! We all laugh and kid, talking about the most recent happenings of our lives, overall, a great evening. Dad tells us about the silly stuff that happened this past week. Mom is quiet, listening and enjoying the conversations around the table. Brandon is telling us all about the possibility of him going to France in the next year to gain some life experience abroad and learn the French language. It feels like no time has passed and the table is soon cleared so that dessert can be served, Samantha’s cherry chocolate cake served with vanilla and moose tracks ice cream. She blows out her candles, and we all have dessert. Before we know it, it is time to head home.
“Bye everyone,” Kyle and I give my sister and Mom a hug and wave good-bye to Dad, Brandon, and Phil. In no time, Kyle and I are back in our car driving home.
“Did you have a good time tonight, Robin?” Kyle asks.
“Oh yes and I could tell Samantha really liked the necklace I made her.”
Kyle says, “That’s great. What did you think about that cake?”
“It was good. It was a little on the sweet side. I could only see myself having a sliver of a piece at a time, but that moose track ice cream; that was amazing.” We are approaching the highway on ramp. Kyle puts the turn signal on, then turns onto the ramp. This highway has four lanes; two lanes that run east and the other two go west. Kyle turns onto the eastbound ramp and accelerates, the on-ramp lane is merging into the highway, and we are now at a cruising speed and are about ten minutes from home.
“KYLE!” I shout and point ahead, there are two cars about one hundred feet in front of us, they are beside each other, one is in the left lane passing the car on the right, but it isn’t passing the car on the right at break neck speed, but at a steady cruise, basically taking its time passing. The driver of the car in the right lane must have been distracted, or something, my guess, a cell phone because without any notice he has crossed over to the left lane and hit the slow passing car and this is it…
Kyle reacts as the two cars in front of us spin out of control. He breaks hard, steering right, off the road and onto the gravel shoulder, just missing the two cars in front of us. Our tires hit the gravel and send up a spray of stones that hit the car, it sounds like hailstorm. We are just inches from going into the ditch, but Kyle manages to bring the car to a stop before the decline. The front of the car is pointing in the direction of the ditch, and the trunk is facing the highway.
“Are you okay?” Kyle asks. His breathing is more of a panting from the sudden surge of adrenaline.
“Yes, I am fine, a little rattled, but I am good.” My entire body is trembling from the adrenaline, but I don’t feel any bumps, bruises, or pain whatsoever. I smile back at Kyle gazing into his concerned blue eyes, he kept us safe, and he returns the smile. His eyes dart beyond mine, the last thing that I remember is Kyle screaming “NO!” I look over my right shoulder, out the passenger side window, and I see is two headlights.